


Reasonable Doubt

by LakeHermione



Series: Reasonable Doubt [1]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe-Non Clone, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-03-18 10:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 27,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13680117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LakeHermione/pseuds/LakeHermione
Summary: Non-clone AU. Beth, Sarah and Charlotte are biological sisters who along with Felix were raised by their foster mother Siobhan in a messy, dysfunctional but loving home. Part family drama, part Murder Mystery, part Beth & Art detective show I always kind of wanted. If you stick with it long enough, you get Rachel and Cosima facing off in a little courtroom drama.





	1. Chapter 1

Siobhan Sadler was alone in her kitchen on Christmas Eve peeling the outer leaves off of a bowl of brussel sprouts.  No one had arrived yet and that was just fine with her at the moment.  The smells of turkey and sage slowly roasting in the oven had pleasantly enveloped the house, she was listening to Christmas music on her old LP player and snow was falling gently outside in large fat flakes.  Siobhan loved Christmas, but she also enjoyed the simple and repetitive tasks of preparing a holiday meal for a crowd. She so rarely had the opportunity to do so now that her chickens had all flown the coop.

Siobhan was a 55-year-old Irish ex-pat, who had started out as a social worker and somehow ended up a radical.  At first blush, she looked like an aging hippy (which in some ways she was), but if you spent any amount of time around her, you occasionally caught flashes of intensity that seemed out of place with the rest of her.  Her foster children knew little of her mysterious past, but they gathered it went far beyond protest marches and mild civil disobedience. Eventually, Siobhan left that dangerous life and emigrated from the U.K. to Canada with her four foster children--Beth, Sarah, Felix and Charlotte.  Nowadays, with her children all grown, she taught piano lessons three evenings per week and worked weekends as a nurse’s aide in a retirement home.  Not a bad life for a semi-retired radical.

“Happy Christmas, Mum!” boomed Felix, the first to arrive, as he stamped the snow off of his motorcycle boots onto the floor-mat.  His arms were laden with brightly wrapped gifts which he placed under the angel-topped tree. He then swept into the kitchen, kissed Siobhan on the cheek and handed her a pink bakery box tied with twine.  Siobhan set down her paring knife and opened the box—mince pies from her favorite bakery. “Oh aren’t you a dear!” smiled Siobhan as she pulled him into a side hug.  While not the eldest, Felix had been the first to arrive in Siobhan’s home when he was about three years old.   Now aged 21, Felix had recently dropped out of art school (“Mum, I want to DO art, not STUDY it!”) and spent most of his days in his downtown loft painting; his nights were spent at galleries, clubs and parties mixing and mingling in the trendy downtown art scene. Truth be told, Siobhan knew Felix was a bit of a libertine.  Maybe someday, she thought to herself, he’ll settled down with a nice boy, but for now she wouldn’t hold her breath. She didn’t know where his income came from (and wasn’t sure she really wanted to know), but Felix was a warm, dear, sweet boy, wickedly funny and loyal as the day is long.

Beth, the eldest of her foster children, arrived next just as Felix and Siobhan had sat down with steaming mugs of tea.  As always, Beth looked more care-worn and tired than Siobhan would have preferred. Beth, Sarah and Charlotte were biological siblings whose mother died from a drug overdose when the girls were 9, 6 and 3.  Beth and Sarah didn’t remember much about her and what they did remember wasn’t good.  Charlotte couldn’t remember her birth mother at all.  Their father (or more likely fathers) were never in the picture.  The girls all had different surnames. Beth had the surname Childs which was her biological mother’s maiden name. Sarah had the surname Manning and Charlotte had the surname Bowles. The girls bounced around the foster care system for several years—often separated--until Siobhan agreed to take all three of them in when they were 12, 9 and 6.  Siobhan knew Sarah and Charlotte had been removed from at least one of their placements for abuse.   Beth had been in a separate foster home at the time and had never forgiven herself for it. 

When Siobhan first met Beth, it quickly became clear she wasn’t your average 12 year old.  Beth was more like a mother to Sarah and Charlotte than a sister.  Upon arriving at Siobhan’s home, Beth quickly surmised that Siobhan was a kind woman and this could be a good home for them all if Sarah didn’t make things too hard on everyone. So she made sure they all toed the line.  She also made sure they bathed, cleaned their rooms, did their homework and wore their coats when it was cold.  Siobhan wasn’t permitted to mother her though—thank you very much.  Siobhan was constantly trying to get her to loosen up and act like a normal teenager but Beth would just sigh, “I’m FINE, Siobhan.”  After high school, Beth worked full-time teaching swimming lessons and as a life guard at the local YMCA.  At nights she went to community college and in just three years earned a degree in criminal justice. Now aged 26, Beth had become a police officer and had recently taken and passed the city’s detective test.  She lived with her boyfriend, Paul, who was an officer in a special -forces regiment of the military. Beth and Paul met two years ago when they both signed up for the same marathon training sessions with a local running club. They were both serious, hard-working and disciplined--perfectly suited in some ways--but he was gone a lot and sometimes Siobhan got the sense that Beth felt a little lonely in their relationship. 

“Merry Christmas” said Beth as she entered the kitchen and then collapsed into the chair next to Felix. “Alright, Elizabeth? Shoot anyone today?” smirked Felix. “Not yet,” Beth replied with a sarcastic grin.  “Tea, dear--or something stronger?” offered Siobhan, gesturing to the liquor atop the fridge.  “I wish, but I have to go back to the station in a few hours.  Mind if I make coffee? I was on all night, then caught a new case just when I supposed to get off, got stuck there all day.” “Ah, you poor thing. No, let me,” said Siobhan as she quickly got up to make coffee before Beth could demur.   “So where’s GI Joe then? You two alright?” asked Felix.  “Well, Felix,” Beth paused, “Paul’s deployed, been gone a week—somewhere in the Middle East--and we’re fine.“  “Hmm...I don’t know what I’m allowed to say about all that soooo…mince pie?” offered Felix.  “Ooh, yes, please” said Beth, brightening. 

A few minutes later all three of their phones blew up with a series of texts from Charlotte, the youngest of Siobhan’s foster children:

Be there soon 

just kicking everyone out and closing up 

I mean it’s christmas eve, go home and drink with your family ffs

oh and merry christmas!

need anything from the store?

god I can’t wait to eat turkey

and roast potatoes

and gravy

and trifle!

Sensing this would go on for a while, Felix responded:

more closing and walking, less texting 

Beth smiled and added:

what Felix said. xoxo

Charlotte was 19.  After she graduated from high school, she’d moved out of Siobhan’s home into a studio apartment not too far from Felix’s loft.  She bartended four nights per week at a bar that was a popular live music venue.    She also worked three days a week at a vintage record shop downtown—which was practically her dream job.  As a concession to Siobhan she was enrolled part-time in community college, had taken (and passed) a statistics class fall semester and was signed up for accounting 101 in the spring. 

Charlotte arrived at Siobhan’s about 45 minutes later. When she opened the front door of the stone duplex where she had largely grown up, she found Beth sitting on the couch sound asleep with her head thrown back.  Charlotte smirked to herself that somehow Beth managed to look tense even whilst sleeping--her blue oxford button-down shirt still perfectly tucked in to her grey slacks.   Felix and Siobhan were quietly talking in the kitchen and putting the finishing touches on dinner.  Charlotte unwound her scarf, hung up her jacket, took off her boots and then tip-toed into the kitchen.  “Hey!” Charlotte yell-whispered as she skipped over to hug Siobhan and then practically tackled Felix, “Merry Christmas! Sorry, I’m late. What’s up with the good detective? She alright?” “Oh, you know Elizabeth-- I think she’s just worked a 24 hour shift or something” sighed Siobhan.  

After the table was set and groaning under the weight of the turkey and side dishes, Charlotte gestured to the still sleeping Beth, “Should we wake her?” “Yeah, I reckon” replied Siobhan. Charlotte sat down next to her sister, leaned her head onto Beth’s shoulder, touched her arm and then gently said, “Time to wake up Elizabeth”  Beth startled awake like there’d been an explosion, but upon collecting herself, smiled fondly and said, “Oh hey! Happy Christmas, you!” and kissed her youngest sister on the top of her head


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nearly done setting the stage here.

As they sat down for Christmas Eve dinner, the only one missing was Sarah.  None of them were really expecting her, but none of them would have been surprised if she walked through the front door either. Sarah, now 22, was just a mess—always had been, really.  As a child, as long as anyone--including Beth-- could remember, Sarah couldn’t keep still, couldn’t behave and couldn’t stay out of trouble.  She was only 9 when she came to Siobhan, but she arrived with a multi-volume social services file chock full of assessments and counselors’ reports documenting all her many behavior “issues.”  She had dropped out of high school at 17 and as an adult Sarah was an unemployed drifter with as Felix put it “slight criminal tendencies” mostly of the petty theft/fraud variety. She also had rather self-destructive relationships with drugs, alcohol and her on again, off again drug-dealing boyfriend Victor.  To be fair, she could also be warm, entertaining and fiercely protective, but she drifted (or crashed) in and out of their lives and usually left chaos (and frequently a visit from the police) in her wake.  

Siobhan knew intellectually that Sarah was probably born with a predisposition for substance abuse and that for whatever reason, had simply had been more affected by the parental neglect and her time in foster system than her sisters seemed to be, but that didn’t make her life choices and volatile behavior any easier to tolerate.  Sarah’s relationship with Beth had always been fraught—with Beth playing the surrogate parent role always trying unsuccessfully to make Sarah behave.  At times Sarah seemed to almost relish defying Siobhan and disrupting Beth’s orderly life.   Sarah and Charlotte had an entirely different dynamic.  They had rarely been separated growing up and as Charlotte never tried to tell anyone what to do, they usually got on well enough.  However, Charlotte, the most laid-back of the three girls, hated conflict.  Now she was old enough to understand that Sarah’s reckless disregard for her herself and others placed an incredible burden on them all but especially Beth who always tried so hard to do the right thing---and Charlotte resented Sarah for it.  Of the four, Sarah was closest with Felix—a born enabler.  While far more affable and stable than Sarah, he too was prone to mischief and excess and he was also often a willing participant in her escapades.  However, not even Felix had seen or heard from her for over four months.

After dinner was over and the table had been cleared, Felix offered to do the dishes.  When he was done, they sat down to exchange presents.  Charlotte got an abstract painting from Felix he had done of the flowers she liked in a nearby park (the walls in her new apartment were still mostly bare); a set of fancy sheets from Beth; and an earthenware tea pot with matching mugs from Siobhan.  Felix got a set of “snow tires” for his bike from Charlotte, a gift certificate to an art supply store from Beth; and a vintage 1960s wristwatch from Siobhan that she had found in a flea market.  Beth got a pair of winter running tights from Charlotte, a gift certificate to a salon for a massage from Felix (god knows she needed to relax), and a pretty embroidered tablecloth and matching set of cloth napkins from Siobhan.  Everyone laughed because all three of the kids bought Siobhan slightly different versions of the same thing--a wool/cashmere blend wrap-around sweater.  She laughed and said she loved all three.

After presents, Beth left to go back to work. She had drawn the short straw and had to work the graveyard shift from 11pm to 7am.  She promised them all she’d get some sleep after her shift and then come back over for Christmas lunch around 3pm.  Shortly after Beth had gone, Felix and Charlotte left together to walk home.  They had volunteered to cook the next day and had planned a menu of linguini with clam sauce, salad and a big raspberry tart.  As they neared Felix’s loft, he invited her in for drink and to show her his latest pieces.  However, when they arrived at the front door to his loft they were both surprised (but then again not surprised) to find Sarah sitting outside Felix’s door, sleeping with her back up against the wall, her head resting on her arms folded atop her drawn up knees.  After exchanging eye-rolls with Charlotte, Felix kicked her lightly and barked, “Well, look what the cat dragged in!”   Sarah woke with a start not unlike Beth had earlier but then relaxed her face into a grin.

Sarah looked a little rough--then again she always did these days.  She was too thin with tired eyes and a fresh bruise on her left cheek.  “Well,” said Felix as he poured them all whiskeys, “To what do we owe this Christmas miracle, Sarah?” “Just missed you, that’s all.” said Sarah. “Yeah, right” sniffed Felix, “Nice shiner, by the way. You on the run?” “It’s nothing and not particularly” said Sarah vaguely, “How’s things here? Elizabeth rid the town of crime yet?”  “Well as you’re back, I think we can safely say ‘no’” grinned Charlotte. “Oh piss off” said Sarah.  Charlotte continued, “But if you really want to know she’s alright—working too hard, playing too little.” “She still with Special Ops Ken?” asked Sarah as she got up to survey Felix’s latest works. “Yeah, far as we know.  She never says much. Paul’s deployed I guess” said Felix, “We missed you tonight, you know.”   “Well, I’m sure S didn’t miss me much, did she?” said Sarah as she drained her whiskey and went to pour herself another.  “Well,” began Felix, “after last time, can you blame her?”  “Not really” said Sarah with a chuckle.

The last time Sarah had been in town she’d been ticketed for disorderly conduct at a bar (for mouthing off to a police officer who was breaking up a fight in which she wasn’t even involved) and had given the arresting officer Siobhan’s name rather than her own since she thought she had an outstanding warrant.  Then, she skipped town so the police eventually turned up on Siobhan’s doorstep with an arrest warrant for Siobhan for the disorderly conduct ticket.  It took a few hours but eventually Siobhan got a hold of Beth and got the whole thing cleared up.   Siobhan, quite understandably, was still fuming.  

After a few hours of drinking and talking, Charlotte fell asleep first on Felix’s couch around 1:30am.  “So how’s this one then? Bit of a lightweight, isn’t she?” asked Sarah fondly as she covered her sister with a blanket.  “I think she’s happy. Keeps quite busy with work and school. She’s a bit like Beth that way—except she likes to have a bit of fun though. She’s got a boyfriend we think” said Felix finishing off his drink. “One more?” he added. “o’course” smirked Sarah, “What’s he like?”  “Well,” said Felix as he poured them fresh drinks, “I’ve only met him once—tall, handsome in a scruffy sort of way, in some local band she likes, American--southern accent and all, and I sort of walked in on them at her apartment one morning a couple of weeks ago.” “Really? Well done Fe. You weren’t awful to her about it were you?” smiled Sarah.  “Maybe just a little. I also may have told Elizabeth about it which lead directly to Charlotte being on the receiving end of one of her patented long form lectures on personal responsibility, safe sex, birth control and the like” said Felix. “Oh god! Poor Charlotte” chuckled Sarah. Felix then contemplated his drink for a moment and said, “Come with us tomorrow.  Charlotte and I are making Christmas lunch. You can make peace with Beth and Siobhan and we can all be one big happy dysfunctional family at least for one day.” “I dunno maybe.  I don’t want to ruin Christmas for everyone.” said Sarah. “Why are you back really, Sarah?” asked Felix. Sarah paused and said, “I left Vic, for good this time, but I’m not sure he’s going to take it lying down so I should probably get out of here before he comes looking for me.” “What do you mean exactly?” asked Felix. “Well, I may have clocked him with an ashtray and then left him concussed on the floor.” said Sarah with a grin.  “Oh god…”said Felix.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot now cometh...

When Charlotte woke the next morning around 8am, Sarah was gone and Felix was snoring loudly in his bed.  Charlotte left a note for Felix that she was going home to sleep a bit more and that she’d meet him with the food at Siobhan’s around noon.  She started to wonder where Sarah had gone and whether she’d turn up later at Siobhan’s, but then she stopped herself since there was absolutely no way of knowing.   She considered texting Beth as a head’s up, but then decided against it since she sincerely hoped Beth was sound asleep at the moment and didn’t want to wake her up. Felix didn’t wake up until just after 11:30am. He had a splitting headache thanks to his late night with Sarah and began rushing around his flat to get ready to meet Charlotte at Siobhan’s at noon.

The graveyard shift was uneventful and by the time Beth got home, she was so exhausted that it was all she could do to feed her cat and set her alarm for 2pm. She then fell asleep in her work clothes atop of her fully made bed.  When her alarm went off later that afternoon, she dragged herself out of bed into her bathroom, and began fumbling in her rather well-stocked medicine cabinet for something to help get her going. 

When Beth arrived at Siobhan’s about an hour later, she entered the house to the sound of Felix and Charlotte bickering in the kitchen.  She found Siobhan sitting on the couch with a scotch and soda in her hand, her eyes closed and an exasperated look on her face.  When Beth came in Siobhan opened her eyes, “Hello dear. How was your shift? Didn’t you get any rest at all?”  “It was fine” replied Beth “and yeah I slept for a few hours.  What’s going on in there?”  Siobhan rolled her eyes, “God knows. I just hope it’s edible.” Just then Felix could be heard lecturing Charlotte, “What did I tell you? You have to tap the clams before you cook them—to see if they’re alive!”  Charlotte replied, “Fine. But the recipe says the only way to really tell is if they open during cooking—See? And can you please lay off! It’s not my fault you’re hungover.”  Upon hearing that Siobhan called from the other room, “Felix dear? How is it that you’re hungover? When you left here last night you were fine?” Felix fixed Charlotte with a death glare, shook his head and then called, “It’s fine, mum.  Nothing to worry about.”  

Despite the constant bickering between the cooks, the food turned out quite well with the clams and the pasta perfectly cooked in a delicious garlicy sauce.  Felix had selected a wine that paired well with the dish and had just poured everyone a glass and called them all to the table, when they heard a knock on the door.   Siobhan snorted “Of course,” shot Felix a penetrating look and then walked over and peered through the blinds.  She then took a deep centering breath, walked out onto the porch, shut the door behind her and said, “Alright then Sarah, let me get a look at you and then let’s have it.” Sarah stared at her battered boots, took a deep breath and said, “I’m really sorry Siobhan. I was drunk and I panicked. Yours was the first name that popped in my mind.  I didn’t even remember I had done it until I found the ticket in the bottom of my bag a few weeks later.” “That’s no excuse and you know it!  You know if it weren’t for your sister, I could’ve had to spend the night in jail!” said Siobhan with some heat.  “I know” said Sarah with her voice catching, “I don’t’ know why I did it.  I mean it, I’m sorry.  I don’t know why I keep doing this shit. I’ll go if you want.”  Siobhan paused as she surveyed her most troubled child and then she said softly, “And I almost believe you.”  Sarah looked away and wiped her eyes.  Siobhan then sighed and said, “Well, come on then.  It’s Christmas and lunch is getting cold.”

While Siobhan and Sarah were outside talking, Felix had paced in the kitchen while Charlotte busied herself setting another place at the table.  Beth sat at the table with a resigned look on her face.  “Well, look who it is. Not that you two seem all that surprised.” said Siobhan with a pointed look in the direction of Felix and Charlotte.  “What, I wasn’t your first stop?” said Beth drily.  “Well, this time I thought it best to start with the unarmed members of the family” said Sarah with a grin.  “Probably for the best” smiled Beth.  After an awkward pause Beth said, “Oh for God’s sake” and then crossed the room and pulled Sarah into a hug. “I’m just glad you’re alright” Beth said quietly.  “I know” said Sarah.

Dinner was a mostly pleasant affair.  Sarah was on her best behavior and the rest of them avoided any controversial topics like how she got the bruise on her face, where she had been for the last four months and what she had been doing.  After dinner Charlotte pulled Sarah aside and gave her her Christmas gift--a vintage Rolling Stones concert t-shirt (black, size small) that had turned up at the record store a few months ago.  Later as everyone began bundling up to leave, Siobhan stiffly asked Sarah if she’d like to stay the night but Sarah thanked her and declined.  Once they were all outside, Beth asked Sarah whether she actually had a place to stay and Sarah replied with a irritated “Don’t worry about it.” Beth shrugged, “Fine. Suit yourself.  Nice seeing you, then” and then abruptly left to walk home.  Charlotte rolled her eyes and sighed, “Oh my God! Well, Merry Christmas I guess” and after hugging Sarah and Felix, hurried to catch up with Beth. Felix then turned to Sarah and said, “You know there’s a nice way to do that, Sarah.” “Yeah, I know. She just bugs me. Now let’s you and me go get a proper drink.” “Can’t. Got company coming over” replied Felix with a smirk, “Oh and where ARE you gonna stay tonight Sarah? Because you’re not staying with me.”  “I dunno. Figure something out. Sherry’s throwing down tonight.  Probably crash at hers.” “Okay,” said Felix giving her a bear hug, “Love you. Be safe, alright?” “I will” said Sarah. “Yeah, right” muttered Felix, and they parted ways.

Around midnight, just as Beth was about to go to bed, her phone began buzzing with a call from her partner, Detective Art Bell.   “Hey Art! Isn’t it way past your bedtime?” asked Beth with a smile.  “Beth, where are you right now?” “My house. Why?” said Beth. “Well, something’s come up and I’m not going to lie, it’s bad. Can you come to the station?” said Art. “Yeah, but what’s going on?” said Beth with a wary tone.  “I got called in.  This morning some landlord over on 24th Street found a dead guy, Hispanic in his early 20s with a head lac and a kitchen knife sticking out of his chest.  Whole place was torn up.  We ran the prints.  Does the name Victor Schmidt mean anything to you?” Beth felt her stomach drop. “Yes. He’s my sister Sarah’s boyfriend…at least sometimes he is…or was” she answered weakly. “You seen Sarah lately?” asked Art. “Yeah, tonight over at my foster mom’s for Christmas. First time I’ve seen her in months.” said Beth.  “Beth, the only prints on the knife belong to Sarah. You know where she is right now?” “No, but my brother Felix might.”


	4. Chapter 4

Beth called and texted Felix on her way to the station but he didn’t pick up or respond.  When she arrived, Art handed her a cup of coffee and sat her down in one of the interrogation rooms. “Beth, you can’t be involved in the investigation, but we need to find Sarah.” “I know but Art, my sister is a lot of things, but she’s not a murderer.  If she did this, it had to be self-defense.  Vic’s been smacking her around for years.  In fact, when I saw her tonight, she had a fresh black eye.  Besides, he’s like twice as big as her and she was acting way too normal tonight.” rambled Beth.  “I know, I know but Beth, we don’t have another suspect and her prints are all over that apartment and the murder weapon.” “Yeah” groaned Beth with her head in hands.  “Let me go try and find her alright? Bring her in.” “Okay” said Art, “but be careful.” “I will.” “Yeah, right” muttered Art.

Beth drove to Felix’s loft and banged on his door til he finally answered wearing only his favorite kimono.  “Elizabeth? What the eff are you doing here? It’s like 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m a bit busy as you can see” he grinned.  “Felix, where’s Sarah?  I need to find her.  It’s important” said Beth.  “I dunno” said Felix sobering, “She left right after you did.  Said something about a party at her friend Sherry’s. What’s this all about?” “Where’s Sherry’s?” snapped Beth.  “Err…warehouse over on 14th Street near the train station maybe?  At least that’s where she used to live. Elizabeth, what is this about?” said Felix. “Vic’s dead.” “What?” said Felix.  “He’s dead and Sarah’s prints are on the murder weapon and I need to find her. Oh and Felix, if you know anything about this, tell me now.” said Beth in a dangerous tone.  “Okay okay. Last night after I got back from Siobhan’s she was waiting for me here.  Charlotte was with me, we had a few drinks and talked. After Charlotte fell asleep on the couch, I asked Sarah why she was back and she said she’d left Vic for good this time, but Beth, she said she was worried he would be coming after her and she wanted to get out of here before he turned up looking for her.  She said they got into it and she clocked him with an ashtray and left him on the floor with a concussion.” “What time did she leave here?” asked Beth. “I dunno exactly” said Felix, “She was here when I went to bed like around 3am but when I got up in the morning around 11 she was gone and I didn’t see her again til she turned up at Siobhan’s.  When was he murdered?”   “No clue” said Beth, “What time did Charlotte leave here this morning?” “I don’t know probably early?” said Felix. “What’s Sherry’s last name?”  “Maybe Clark or Cook, something like that?” said Felix. “Thanks Felix. If you see her, call me. Promise?” “Yeah, course.”

After Beth left Felix’s loft, she called Art and had him search all of Sarah’s arrest records for the name Sharon or Sherry and as luck would have it Sarah was picked up for shoplifting along with a Sharon Cooke a little over a year ago.  At the time Sharon gave her address as 1245 Havery which was pretty close to where Felix described this Sherry’s apartment.  When Beth arrived at the address, it was nearly 3am but it didn’t take her long to find the party going on in the rundown warehouse building that had been long ago been converted to apartments.  

When Beth reached the third floor, she found a smoke-filled hallway packed with people milling about in various states of consciousness.  About halfway down the hallway was an open door to an apartment with music pulsing out of it.  Beth wound her way through the crowd scanning for Sarah.  The inside of the apartment was even more packed and hazy than the hallway.  Bottles and cans were covering every surface and there was so much pot smoke hovering about that Beth had to stifle a cough.  As she made her way through the apartment, Beth saw enough drugs and paraphernalia to probably arrest almost everyone in the entire room if she were so inclined.  And then finally, she saw Sarah leaning precariously against the wall and talking to some sketchy looking guy who had his hand around her waist. 

Sarah was just tipping back a nearly empty pint of bourbon when she noticed Beth making her way towards her in the crowd.  “The hell?” said Sarah as her unfocused eyes widened in surprise.  “We need to talk. It’s important.” said Beth over the music. “Why are you here?” said Sarah with a laugh.  “Please can you just come talk to me in the hallway?” said Beth. “Okay,” said Sarah, her words thick and slow, “But only...only if you promise to leave then.” “Fine, whatever. Just come on” said Beth.  As Sarah stumbled to the door, Beth considered how best to get Sarah to leave with her—lie or tell the truth? Sarah was just trashed. There wouldn’t be any reasoning with her and there was no way she’d come voluntarily. It would have to be a lie. “Sarah, Charlotte’s been in an accident and I need you to come with me to the hospital.” 

It worked. A few minutes later, Sarah was slumped in the front seat of Beth’s car fumbling with the seat belt.  “Here, let me.” said Beth impatiently as she buckled Sarah in and started her car.   Beth pulled up to the intersection and waited for the light to turn green. “She’s alright isn’t she?” asked Sarah for the fourth time. “Sarah, I just told you, I don’t know.” snapped Beth distractedly, her mind on what to do next.  Best case scenario, Sarah passed out on the way so they just carry her in without a scene. Better take the long way to the station. “My bag...I need my bag” mumbled Sarah. “We’ll get it later” said Beth as she reached for her phone and texted Art to let him know she had Sarah and to meet her at the station. When the light turned green, Beth put down her phone and accelerated into the intersection.  She never even saw the car that ran the red light until just a split second before impact. She heard Sarah scream, felt her head smack the window, the airbags deployed and then nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

Beth’s first thought as her car came to a rest was a fleeting sense of relief which quickly turned to dread when she looked over at Sarah and realized that she wasn’t moving at all.  Some of the panic subsided when she reached over, found Sarah’s pulse and saw that she was still breathing.  After quickly calling 9-11, Beth tried to get out of the car to check on the other driver, but when she went to stand up, her head spun, her knees temporarily buckled and she noticed for the first time she was bleeding profusely from her head.  She then looked over and saw the other driver had gotten out of his car and was fleeing the scene of the accident on foot.  The ambulance arrived moments later followed by a squad car from a neighboring precinct.   As the EMTs were assessing Sarah, Beth identified herself to the responding officers and told them which direction the other driver had fled.  Sarah began to stir as they were loading her into the ambulance.    

The next morning, Sarah woke up in the hospital without a clue as to how she’d gotten there and with a massive headache, one arm in a cast and the other arm handcuffed to the bed.  She took in the cast and her hospital gown and then looked over and saw Beth sleeping in a chair beside her bed and hissed “”Elizabeth!” Beth stirred awake. Then noticing the handcuffs, Sarah’s eyes went wide, “What the hell?” “Car accident” said Beth calmly.  “No…Oh god. Please tell me I wasn’t driving?” said Sarah with alarm.  “Nope, not this time. That was me” said Beth, pointing to the stitches on her temple, “Drunk driver ran a red light and hit us pretty hard.”  “How’d I end up in your car?” asked Sarah nonplussed.  “Jesus, Sarah. What’s the last thing you remember?” said Beth “Er…dunno, drinking at Sherry’s?” “Well, I had to come get you.”  “Why?” “Sarah, Vic’s dead.” “Jesus, when?” “They found him yesterday. When’s the last time you saw him?” “Wait, is that what this is about?” said Sarah gesturing toward the handcuffs. “Yes. When was the last time you saw him?” said Beth evenly. “I dunno” said Sarah with rising panic. “Well, they found your prints on the knife sticking out of his chest so you need to know.”    

Before Sarah could respond to that a doctor entered the room. “Ah you’re up. I’m Dr. Grant. You’re a lucky girl, Ms. Manning--concussion, a few broken ribs and a fractured wrist, but no internal damage. Pretty minor all things considered” said the doctor.  “Now,” she continued, “the police would like to question you, but I told them they can’t come in just yet. First, I want to check you over, do a cognitive assessment since you lost consciousness last night. How are you feeling by the way?” “I’ve a headache, hurts to breath, my arm’s kinda throbbing.” replied Sarah. “Well, that’s all to be expected given your injuries. Now, I want to give you something for the pain, but first…well…This is your sister, right?” “I can leave” interjected Beth. “’It’s fine, she can stay” sighed Sarah.  “Okay” the doctor continued, “Sarah, your blood alcohol level last night was .36 when they brought you in--which you should know is dangerously high. You also tested positive for a variety of controlled substances.  I need to take another blood draw to confirm your levels have returned to zero before I can prescribe anything else for you and before the police question you. Do you understand?” “Are you asking me or telling me?” smirked Sarah while studiously avoiding all eye contact with Beth. “I’m afraid you’re currently in police custody and they’ve ordered it—don’t want to taint the interview.” “Whatever” muttered Sarah.  After the doctor checked her vitals and left the room to get the kit to do the blood draw, Sarah looked at Beth and said, “Do not look at me that way, Elizabeth. I didn’t kill him if that’s what you think.” “Sarah, I don’t know what to think.  I want to be on your side, but I can’t be the one to question you, and you should know this is bad and listen to me---you need to ask for a lawyer” and then Beth got up and left the room.

While Art went in to question Sarah, Beth sat in the hallway sipping bad hospital coffee.  After about 45 minutes, Art came back and motioned for Beth to follow him. “She declined a lawyer.” “I figured…probably just because I said she needed one” muttered Beth. “Hang on,” Art continued, “She says she didn’t do it and she last saw him the day before yesterday.  She says they had a fight around midday on the 24th because she told him she was leaving him.  He got angry, chased her around, gave her that black eye and tore their place apart so she threw a glass ashtray at him which hit him in the head and knocked him down.  She says she left him writhing on the floor and hasn’t seen or heard from him since.  Now listen, my gut tells me she’s mostly telling the truth, but she’s definitely not telling me everything.” “Oh I’m sure” sighed Beth, “Like what?” “Well, for starters, I tried to pin her down on exactly why they were fighting but she wouldn’t really say.  She also won’t say what she did after she left but before she went to Felix’s. And, she wouldn’t give me anything when I asked her who else might have wanted to hurt Vic.” “Yeah well, assuming she didn’t do it, she’s probably mixed up in whatever got him killed too” said Beth, then she continued “Beckwith have a time of death yet?” “She says between 2am and 6am on the 25th” “Well” said Beth rubbing her eyes, “I know she was with Felix and Charlotte from about 10pm on the 24th until 3am on the 25th, but when Charlotte woke up around 8am that morning she was gone.” “Okay” said Art, “So we need to account for her whereabouts from 3am to 8am on the 25th. Got it. I’m gonna go back in there and ask her about that.  DeAngelis is pulling cell phone records and I sent plain clothes over to canvas the neighbors to see if anyone saw or heard anything and get the footage from the security cameras in and around Vic’s building.  Also, she denied having a cell phone.  Does that sound right to you?” “I can’t really say.  I’ll ask Felix, but I didn’t see her use one yesterday.  If she did, it’d be a burner since there’s no way she’d be making monthly payments on a phone or anything else for that matter” grumbled Beth.  “Listen Beth, I know we’ve got a set of prints on the knife, but she lived there and I just don’t like her for this one. He’s a big dude and it sounds like he was pretty pissed off at her.  How’s someone her size gonna get the drop on him like that with a kitchen knife? One more thing, and you must get this a lot, but Jesus she looks just like you.” “Yeah, I know,” sighed Beth, “I’m not sure which one of us that bothers more.”

Felix and Siobhan turned up at the hospital after Art went back in to continue questioning Sarah.  Charlotte had stopped by earlier that morning on her way to work before Sarah had woken up. Siobhan reached out to gently sweep the hair off of Beth’s forehead to get a look at her stiches, “Are you alright? All this and a car accident too?” “I’m fine Siobhan” sighed Beth, “But this is bad, really bad. They think she killed Vic.” “I know, Felix told us” said Siobhan, “But we all agree, she can’t have. One, I don’t think she’s capable of that; and two, if she had done something like that, she’d run.  She’d be 500 miles from here by now. She wouldn’t come by for Christmas tea like nothing had happened now would she?”  “I want to agree, I really do, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that people do things all the time their family can’t imagine.” “So what happens next?” asked Felix. “Well,” said Beth, “the doctor wants to keep her here another night for observation and then she’ll probably be taken to county lock up and charged unless we can find an alibi for where she was between 3am and 8am on the 25th or get another lead.” “Can we see her?” asked Felix. “Yeah, I’m sure you can when they’re done questioning her. I think I’m going to go home for a while. They put me on administrative leave for a few days while all this plays out. I’m gonna try and get a bit of sleep. I’ll call you if I hear anything.” said Beth.

About an hour later, Siobhan had just stepped outside to call Charlotte when Felix saw Art leave Sarah’s room.  Before Felix could get in to see her, however, a man with a clipboard beat him to it.  About five minutes later, the man left in a bit of a huff.  When Felix walked in, Sarah snarled, “Jesus! Now what?” “Easy there” said Felix. “Sorry.  I thought…well, never mind.” There were several pamphlets on the tray in front of her.  Once Felix got a look he understood the source of her irritation, “Well what have we here…” he trilled as he swept up the pamphlets. “Felix…” she said with a warning tone.  Undeterred he pressed on reading the title of the first one and flipping the pamphlet open, “’Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test’--D’you know Sarah, I reckon you’d ace this one!  You’ve probably done all ten of these things just this week, yeah?” “Felix! I’m warning you. Shut the fuck up!” “Now let’s see! What else are they assessing you for? Opioids, that’s new.” “Felix!” she shouted. “Alright, alright, I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”  “Hey Felix.  I’m handcuffed to a bed, I’ve got about six broken bones, they won’t give me anything stronger than an aspirin cuz they think I’m an addict and oh yeah, I’m about to be arrested for murder. I can’t handle your bullshit right now.  So, unless you’re planning to spring me out of here and take me to a bar, I don’t want to hear another word of your stand-up routine, alright? Oh and if you’re wondering, I didn’t kill Vic, okay?” “I know” said Felix softly as he sat down and grasped her hand that was handcuffed to the bed. “We’ll figure something out, yeah? Don’t you have any idea who would have done it?  There’s gotta be loads of people with an axe to grind with Vic.” “Yeah, there are, but I’m not naming any of them. That would be seriously bad for my health” said Sarah. “Are you kidding me? Sarah, that’s crazy! They have your prints on the murder weapon!” said Felix.  “I’m serious. I can’t.  And I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m just gonna to have to hope the cops go all CSI on this and figure out I didn’t do it.”  Then after a pause she added, “But Felix, I am gonna need your help with something.”


	6. Chapter 6

“No. Absolutely not. I am not getting involved in this. Not a chance” said Felix. 

“Come on Felix, I just want you to get my bag from Sherry’s.  That’s it. That’s all” said Sarah.

“Why?” said Felix, his arms folded across his chest.

“It’s important, Fe.” said Sarah.

“No. Look me in the eye and tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with Vic’s death.”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with Vic’s death that I know of.”

“Now, see, see, right there! You’re unbelievable! This does have something to do with all this.”

“Hmm…Not really.”

“Tell me now or I’m leaving.”

“Fine. When I left Vic, I took something--just my fair share of a deal we’d done.  That’s all.”

“Oh god! Drugs or money, Sarah?”  
“Mmm…It’s probably better if you don’t know.“

“Drugs or money? Or I’m leaving” hissed Felix.

“Fine. I took half the coke, alright?” Sarah whispered.

“Oh brilliant!” Felix exploded, “So you just want me to waltz into Sherry’s and get a big bag of drugs that you stole from a murder victim like the same day he was murdered and what? Like hold onto it for you until you beat the murder rap?”

 “Can you please keep your voice down? This place is crawling with cops. And no, I would not ask you do that, Fe.  I already sold it. It’s just money, alright?”

 “Oh yeah, that’s like loads better, Sarah.  Wait, is this why you thought he’d come after you?”

“Yeah, mostly I guess.”

“So you came to my house with what, like a kilo of stolen cocaine, for a nice little catch up on Christmas Eve knowing full well that Vic might have burst in at any moment in a homicidal rage to get it back? Jesus, Sarah it’s one thing to do it to me, but Charlotte was there too you know!”

“Felix…stop being so dramatic.”

“Oh I’m being dramatic? Oh my god, no. Just no. I want nothing to do with this. You’re on your own on with this one.”  Felix then turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him.  When he got into the hallway he nearly ran into Siobhan. “What’s all this about?” she asked looking confused.  “Nothing, mum. Just Sarah being Sarah.”

After Beth went home, she took a shower and slept for four hours.  When she woke up, it was late afternoon and the sun was just beginning to set.  She had three missed calls and four texts from Charlotte who was now working her shift at the bar for the evening and wanting an update, a voicemail from Siobhan that they’d finally seen Sarah who was now “back to her usual self” which probably meant she’d moved from “denial” to “anger” in the stages of grief over her current situation, and finally Art had texted her asking her to call him.  “Hey Art. What’s up?” she asked when he answered.  “Well, there’s good news and bad news. What do you want first?” “Gimmee the bad” said Beth. “So far she’s got no real alibi for after 3am on the 25th.  Says after Felix went to bed, she slept for a couple of hours and left around 6am before Charlotte and Felix got up.  She says she didn’t want to be there in case Vic turned up.  Went to some coffee shop downtown and hung out for a couple of hours. The waitress who comes on at seven remembers her being there alone in a booth when she got there, but I haven’t been able to track down the waitress on the night shift. So, we’ll need to get any lobby or street cameras in and around Felix’s loft and from that coffee shop.  Maybe we can pin down when she left his place and got there.” said Art. 

“And the good news?” said Beth rubbing her eyes.  “Well, footage from the lobby of Vic’s apartment building shows Sarah leaving in a hurry around 1pm on the 24th so that tracks with her story.  We can’t find any footage of her in the lobby camera or any of the street cameras in the area coming back later that night or the next day.” “Well, that’s good, right?” said Beth hopefully.  “Yeah,” said Art, “but there’s a problem--there’s a back door.  Turns out the camera back there doesn’t work. “Great” Beth sighed, “What about the neighbors? Anybody see anything?” “Yeah. Couple of neighbors heard them fighting around midday on the 24th. Haven’t found anybody that heard anything that night and absolutely nobody came or went through the lobby during the window of time when Beckwith says he was killed. But, we do know Vic was alive and kicking after Sarah left on the 24th because a bank camera on the corner down the street shows Vic buying cigarettes at a convenience store just before midnight. Also, looks like Vic sent a series of texts to a burner phone between 1:00 and 2:00am on the 25th. The first one he sent says “How much?” and the other party responds “$20,000” and then Vic replies, “No” And that’s it.”

After she hung up with Art, Beth’s phone almost immediately lit up again with a Skype call from Paul.  “Hey, Merry Christmas! Sorry I missed you yesterday. I called, but you didn’t answer.” said Paul with a big 40 watt smile that quickly began to dim as he got a good look at her. “Well…” said Beth.  “Hang on!” Paul interrupted, “Are those stitches?” “Er…Short version—I got into a car accident and Sarah’s about to be arrested for murder.”  Beth then filled Paul in on the all of the tumultuous events of the last 48 hours.  “Holy shit!” said Paul running his fingers through his close-cropped hair.  “Exactly” said Beth.  “So you don’t have any other suspects?” asked Paul.  “Not yet” said Beth. “Well, I agree with Siobhan and the others” said Paul, “I don’t think she’d do that.”  “Yeah, well let’s hope you’re right” said Beth.  “You know” said Paul, “The one part of her story that really doesn’t add up is why she left Felix’s at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning.  Have you ever known her to voluntarily get up that early to literally do anything? Especially if she and Felix were up drinking the way they usually do until 3am.  The Sarah I know would be practically comatose til noon the next day at the earliest.  I bet she had to do something or meet somebody. Something she can’t exactly tell the police, you know?”  “God, you’re probably right” mused Beth, “and it would be so like Sarah for her murder alibi to be a drug deal or something.”  After hanging up, Beth realized she hadn’t wished him a Merry Christmas or even asked him how he was doing.  She managed to feel guilty and sad all at once.  After going for a run to clear her head and think things over, Beth made herself a sandwich, pretended to watch TV for a couple of hours, took a sleeping pill and then went to bed. 

Charlotte was exhausted after she got off work at the bar at 10:00pm, but as much as she wanted to just go home and crash, she dragged herself to the hospital to at least try and see Sarah knowing she was probably getting carted off to jail the next morning for god knows how long.  She’d been stunned to receive Beth’s call that morning about the accident and Sarah being the prime suspect in Vic’s murder.  When she’d stopped by the hospital on her way to open the record store, Sarah was still sleeping.  She looked so broken and frail lying there handcuffed to that hospital bed that it almost seemed ridiculous to think she could have killed anyone, much less a big meathead like Vic.   Beth, who had dried blood all over her clothes and looked like death warmed over herself, had tiredly explained everything she knew at that point. Charlotte had spent the whole day processing it all in a distracted fog.  

When Charlotte arrived at the hospital, it was just before visiting hours ended at 11pm.  There was a bored-looking police officer sitting in the chairs outside Sarah’s door who after checking Charlotte’s ID, let her go in.  When the door opened, Sarah startled, looked away and wiped her eyes. 

“Hey, Sarah” said Charlotte, “Brought your favorite—chocolate” and then handed her a milkshake.

“Thanks” said Sarah in a tight little voice.

Not knowing where to even begin, Charlotte went with a sarcastic, “So, how’ve ya been?”

Sarah snorted out a laugh but then winced, “God, that hurts” and clutching her side.  When the pain subsided, she sobered and said, “You know I didn’t do it, right?” 

“Yeah, I know. Want some company?” said Charlotte. Sarah gestured to the chair beside her bed.  Charlotte knew from experience that Sarah only talked about things on her own terms and in her own time (if ever). 

After a few minutes where they were both lost in thought, Charlotte said, “I can’t believe Vic’s dead.” 

“Yeah, I been thinking about that….I didn’t want to be with him anymore—sometimes I even hated him, but he wasn’t all bad, you know?” said Sarah.

“Yeah?” said Charlotte.

“I dunno.  Sometimes we had fun. He was a complete fuck up. We matched, you know?” Another pause. “Honestly, I started as many fights as he did.”

 “Didn’t seem like it” said Charlotte quietly.

“Yeah? Well, I guess his just left more of a mark.” smirked Sarah pointing to her eye.

“Yeah, I guess” said Charlotte. 

A few more minutes passed in silence before Sarah started up again, “I wonder if his brother knows?”

“Who?”

“His little brother Joey.  He works at a gas station over on 27th street.  He’s a good kid—kinda like you.” Sarah smiled.  Then she continued, ”They were foster kids too you know. Except Vic had it way worse. When he was like six, his dad beat him within an inch of his life, went to jail for it and everything. Vic and his brother ended up in the system and their mom never even tried to get them back.  Anyway, they never found anyone good like Siobhan.”

Charlotte wished she had a tape recorder.  “I’m totally telling mum you said that” Charlotte smirked.

Sarah laughed and winced again. “Shit, that hurts. Seriously what am I gonna do? You know they’re taking me to county tomorrow morning.”

Charlotte nodded, “Yeah, Beth told me.”

“She probably thinks I did it, doesn’t she?”

“No…At least I don’t think so. But I mean she’s always got your back.”

“Pfft...maybe not this time. Seriously, why the hell did she have to come drag me out of that party?  I might be wanted for murder, but at least I wouldn’t be laid up in the hospital all busted up and headed off to rot in county for god knows how long” whined Sarah.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I am.” huffed Sarah, “You know, she probably thinks I deserve this.”

“Jesus, Sarah! Do you really think Beth wanted to be out running around all over town at 3 o’clock in the morning trying to figure out where you decided to to get wasted last night? For all she knew whoever killed Vic might be after you too. You know, this isn’t exactly a picnic for her either. Her car’s totaled, she split her head open and they put her on administrative leave over all this.  All because—like always--she was just trying to protect you.  I’m sorry this is happening, but it’s not her fault a drunk driver ran that light and it sure as hell isn’t her fault you’re in this mess!”

Sarah’s eyes went wide and she sat up like she wanted to argue, but then she slumped back defeated and exhaled, “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just everything is so fucked up right now.”

“Yes. It is” said Charlotte, still a little uncharacteristically fired up. But then she softened her face and said, “Look I’m sorry I yelled at you.  Beth will figure something out or at least the police will. In the meantime, if there’s anything I can do…” Charlotte trailed off.

Sarah screwed her eyes shut before clearing her throat, “Er…yeah well, my clothes--they kinda got ruined in the accident. And ah…well Siobhan brought me jeans and a t-shirt earlier, but I sort of left my bag at my friend Sherry’s place when Beth came to get me last night. It’s like all my things, yeah? Think you could go get it for me and like hang onto it til I get out?”

“Yeah, sure. Wait, there’s nothing in it that’s gonna get me in trouble is there?”

“No, course not.” said Sarah.

“Alright…Where’s Sherry’s?” asked Charlotte. After Sarah gave her the address, Charlotte went home and Sarah’s conscious twinged a little but what choice did she have? It was a lot of money, yeah?

The next morning, Beth got up early, went for another run and then called Art.  “Beth, I’m sorry, the County Attorney decided to charge Sarah--Second Degree Murder and Aggravated Assault. The fingerprint evidence was just too much.  She was discharged from the hospital and transferred to county first thing this morning.  There’s an arraignment and bond hearing at 2pm this afternoon” said Art.  “Yeah, I get it. You get anything from the cameras outside Felix’s or the diner?” asked Beth. “Not yet. Hopefully later this afternoon. Want to meet me for dinner at Fung’s?” “Yeah, that would be good.”  Beth texted Charlotte, Siobhan and Felix to let them know Sarah had been transferred to the county jail and had a hearing at the downtown courthouse later that afternoon. Beth told the others she’d attend the hearing and report back.     

Around noon, Charlotte knocked on Sherry’s door and after a few minutes, a very blurry eyed Sherry answered. Charlotte had expected some pushback, but Sherry was too stoned to care.  After Charlotte explained that Sarah was her sister and that she’d come to collect her bag, Sherry told her to wait there and returned a few minutes later with Sarah’s battered old duffel bag—no questions asked.  When Charlotte got home, she unzipped the bag holding all of Sarah’s worldly possessions—a few pairs of black jeans, some ratty t-shirts, the shirt Charlotte had given her for Christmas, a grey wool sweater, underwear, socks, a small make-up bag, an old Ipod touch, a cell phone, a couple of chargers and of course, Sarah’s beloved black leather jacket.  At the bottom of the bag was a layer of junk and trash--match books, rolling papers, empty lighters, bus tickets, scraps of paper, a few stubby black eyeliner pencils, but also a small stack of family photos bound with a rubber band and carefully wrapped in an envelope.  What Charlotte didn’t find was the $20,000 hidden in the lining of the bag.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter’s a little dense with criminal procedure and full, disclosure, I didn’t do any research on Canadian law beyond a simple Google search to confirm what I already suspected which is that it’s different from US criminal procedure which also varies from state to state. I just tried to write what I know. Hopefully, it all makes sense. Oh and poor, Sarah but then again maybe she does sort of deserve this.

Beth arrived at the courthouse about thirty minutes before Sarah’s hearing and sat down on one of the courtroom benches a few rows back from the jury box.  After about 20 minutes, courthouse deputies opened the side door and escorted in a group of inmates from the county women’s detention center all of whom were shackled and wearing orange jumpsuits. About halfway down the line, Beth saw Sarah gingerly shuffle into the courtroom looking completely miserable and a bit green.  After Sarah had taken her seat they briefly locked eyes. Beth gave her a small smile which Sarah weakly returned, but then Sarah closed her eyes and put her head down on her good arm on the back of the chair in front of her and didn’t look up again until her case was called. 

Beth was no stranger to this courthouse or its proceedings. She frequently worked with the County Attorney’s office on her cases and often had to testify in court during trials or evidentiary hearings. She was just wondering which County Attorney would be handling Sarah’s case when she heard the door to the courtroom swing open followed by the unmistakable sound of high heels clicking on the marble floor. Beth visibly deflated and then turned to see Rachel Duncan making her way to the front of the courtroom trailed by some hapless assistant carrying a stack of files. As she passed Beth she paused, “Detective Childs…whatever are you doing here? I didn’t see your name on any of these files?” “I’m just here for my sister” replied Beth with a glance toward the prisoners in the jury box. Rachel’s eye’s narrowed, “Which one’s your sister?” “Sarah Manning.” “Really? How bizarre!” said Rachel before sauntering the rest of the way to counsel’s table.

Some County Attorneys were earnest do-gooders, some were politically ambitious and some were only there because their families were rich and connected. Rachel Duncan was none of those things. She was there for the sport of it and she rarely lost. She was notoriously difficult to work with, but she was smart and had one of the highest conviction rates in the city. Beth had dealt with her on several occasions in the past and was always relieved when the case was over. She was arrogant, rude, dismissive and not at all afraid to verbally dress down police witnesses.  Once she had to dismiss one of Beth’s cases because Beth had failed to properly preserve the chain of evidence from the crime scene. After an overnight stake-out followed by a 12 hour shift, Beth had mislabeled the bullet casings from one case with those from another. Afterwards, Rachel had summoned Beth to her office and in front of two law clerks, her assistant and the entire support staff, had lectured her for over an hour on the proper procedure for logging evidence.

Beth watched as Rachel paged through the stack of files for the cases to be called that afternoon with one perfectly manicured finger on her cheek and occasionally taking notes on her notepad with an expensive looking pen. After the judge entered the courtroom, the bailiff cried, “All rise.” Rachel stood up, smoothed her perfectly tailored suit and greeted the judge as if she were welcoming him to her courtroom rather than the other way around. Beth then watched as one by one each of the women were called to stand before the judge as he formally read the charges against them in open court. Afterwards, Rachel would stand up and give a short summary of the evidence supporting the charge and then the judge would ask the defendant how they wanted to plead. Almost all of them said “Not guilty” so the judge proceeded to ask them whether they could afford a lawyer (most said they could not) and then the judge assigned them a public defender.

Most people (including their indigent clients) assume public defenders were a step down in quality from private criminal defense attorneys, but in Beth’s experience that was usually not the case. For one thing, most Public Defenders were there because they were bleeding hearts who were passionate about protecting the rights of criminal defendants. (God knows they weren’t there for the money.) In addition, most private attorneys only dabble in criminal cases, whereas the public defenders did nothing else and were there all day, every day. They knew all the judges and to be effective, had to have good working relationships with the County Attorneys in order to get the best plea deals.

Usually there were two public defenders present at arraignments—one younger attorney who would undertake defense of the misdemeanors and one more experienced public defender to take on the more serious felony cases—like Sarah’s. Today as the proceedings began, there had been only one public defender sitting at the defense table and he looked extremely young, but just as the first case was being called Beth was relieved to see Cosima Neihaus, one of the better felony Public Defender’s, dash in to join her colleague apologizing profusely to the court for being late because her prior hearing in another courtroom had run long.

Beth had had a few cases with Cosima Niehaus over the years and had always found her to be smart, professional, well-prepared and deceptively good when it came to eliciting helpful admissions from the prosecution’s witnesses. She had a friendly, rather than overly-confrontational style that often won over juries and caused prosecution witnesses to let their guard down. Reasonable doubt is the name of the game when it comes to criminal defense and when police witnesses equivocate or get crossed-up, the prosecution can often go south very quickly. In stark contrast to Rachel Duncan, Cosima was rather well-liked by her peers and the judges alike. However, interestingly Beth had once seen Cosima and Rachel having lunch together in the courthouse cafeteria amicably hammering out plea deals over a stack of files. It was hard to imagine these two very different women working together, but she got the impression there was mutual respect between them as worthy adversaries.

After the arraignment portion of the proceedings concluded, the judge had to set a bond amount for each defendant (usually 10% of some larger number which depended on the seriousness of the crime and the court’s perception of that particular person’s flight risk). One woman, who was charged with first offense DUI and had no prior criminal record was released on her own recognizance which meant she didn’t have to post a bond at all. Another woman with a lengthy criminal history was charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and her bond was set at $250,000 (meaning someone would have to post $25,000 for her or else she would stay locked up at county until her trial.) As a practical matter, most criminal defendants and their families lacked the means to post anything over a nominal bond so most who were accused of serious crimes stayed locked up until trial.

When Sarah’s case was finally called, she walked past Rachel with her head down and stood in front of judge. Rachel had decided to charge Sarah with Second Degree Murder and Aggravated Assault. That basically meant the People aimed to prove that Sarah had intentionally killed Vic, but had not done so “with malice aforethought” which is to say it was not a premeditated killing. It carried a sentence of twenty to life. The Aggravated Assault charge was a somewhat duplicative charge filed in light of the fact that Vic had been stabbed. Ostensibly it carried an additional penalty of one to twenty years in jail. In reality, it was just a bargaining chip to be dismissed when a plea bargain (most likely manslaughter) was offered.

After the judge read Sarah’s charges Rachel summarized the evidence in Sarah’s case:

“The People will show that Victor Schmidt was found dead on December 25th in the apartment he sometimes shared with Ms. Manning. There was no sign of forced entry. Ms. Manning’s prints were the only fingerprints found on the murder weapon and forensic analysis of the entrance wound suggests Mr. Schmidt was stabbed while he was upright by a right-handed person who was several inches shorter than he was. Mr. Schmidt was 6’1”. Ms. Manning is 5’3” and right handed. Forensic analysis has further revealed that Mr. Schmidt was likely killed between 2 am and 6 am on December 25th. Ms. Manning claims she was at her brother’s loft until just before 6am on December 25th and then she went to a coffee shop where she stayed until 8:30am. There are no independent witnesses to corroborate her alibi. The day before he was murdered, neighbors overhead Mr. Schmidt and Ms. Manning have a violent altercation in the apartment. One neighbor will testify she overheard them fighting over how to allocate the proceeds from a recent narcotics transaction. Ms. Manning is the only person known to have both motive and opportunity in the death of Mr. Schmidt. Thank you, your honor.”

The judge then asked Sarah how she plead. She looked up for the first time and mumbled, “Not guilty.” “What was that Ms. Manning?” asked Rachel. “Not guilty” repeated Sarah in a much louder icy tone. The court then appointed Cosima Neihaus as her public defender.

Next, Rachel presented the court with a recitation of Sarah’s extensive criminal history which included at least three instances where she had failed to appear at a hearing--including the stunt she had pulled a few months ago where she gave the police Siobhan’s name and then skipped down. “Your honor,” Rachel intoned, “Notwithstanding the fact that Ms. Manning appears to have some ties to the community, her record would indicate she is of the highest risk of flight. That and in light of grave nature of this crime, the People recommend bond be set at $1,000,000.”

Cosima then stood up and addressed the court, “Good afternoon, Your Honor, Rachel” she said with a smile, “Setting Ms. Manning’s bond at a million dollars would be excessive and as Ms. Duncan most certainly knows from her recent experience before the court of appeals in the Rivas case, under most circumstances, $1,000,000 bonds violate constitutional norms of due process.” “Now, now Cosima, there’s no need to gloat.” interrupted Rachel with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Sorry, Rachel, I know this is a sore subject for you, but I wanted to make sure the judge was aware of this recent decision. But, if I were gloating, Rachel, I’d direct the court’s attention to footnote seven in the Rivas opinion on the role of prosecutorial overreach in the outcome of that case. Your honor I have a copy of the Rivas decision for the court.  Rachel, would you like a copy too?” said Cosima with her eyes dancing. “No, thank you, Cosima. Are you finished?” sniffed Rachel. “Not quite. As I was saying your honor, the Constitution prohibits the accused from being held without bond except in cases of treason and the courts have been clear that setting a bond so high that no one could possibly pay it is tantamount to holding a defendant without bond. While Ms. Manning has an extensive criminal history, she has no prior felony convictions and no real history of violence—that is other than as a victim of domestic violence at the hands of the deceased Mr. Schmidt. Further, although I’ve just been appointed to this case, it appears that at this point the People’s case is entirely circumstantial. The presence of Ms. Manning’s fingerprints at the scene and on the kitchen knife that was the murder weapon can be easily explained by virtue of the fact that she had been living there. Unless, I’m missing something, the People have no direct evidence of Ms. Manning’s involvement in this crime. The defense asks that bond be set at $100,000. Thank you, your honor.” The judge smiled at Cosima, but this was a murder case and he wasn’t willing to go quite that far, and set Sarah’s bond at $400,000 which meant someone would need to post $40,000 for her to bond out pending trial. Even if Beth, Felix or Siobhan had that kind of money, Beth doubted any of them would post it given Sarah’s history. After speaking briefly with Cosima, Beth saw Sarah wipe her eyes and then slowly walk back to the jury box, sit down and put her head back down on her arm.  On TV they make it seem like one week you’re arrested and the next week there’s a trial, but Beth knew better. The defense and prosecution need time to martial all the facts, interview witnesses, retain forensic experts, litigate evidentiary issues and then and only the get on the court’s docket for a trial date. Unless, they could prove Sarah’s alibi or make a compelling case against another suspect, Beth imagined Sarah would be spending at least the next six months in jail awaiting trial.


	8. Chapter 8

When Beth arrived at Fung’s, Art was already there sitting in their favorite booth with a familiar scowl on his face. As soon as she sat down, he growled, “Well, she lied to us.” “Oh shit. About what?” asked Beth.  “Cell phone. We got security camera footage from the diner and from the gas station across the street. Shows her talking on a cell phone as she arrived and about 15 minutes later some sketchy looking guy comes in and sits down with her in the diner for about 5 minutes around 6:15 a.m. and then leaves. What’s that all about?” replied Art.  Beth put her head in her hands and went quiet for a few seconds before answering, “I’ve got a guess if you want to hear it?” “I’m all ears.” said Art. “Today at the arraignment Rachel Duncan said one of the neighbors heard them fighting on the 24th about a drug deal.  Knowing my sister, she took their score on her way out.  My guess is she’s selling here. She can’t exactly tell us about that, can she?” “Well, she’s gonna have to” snapped Art then he continued, “Or maybe--and I know you don’t want to hear this--this is her meeting with the guy who offed Vic.”  “Yeah.” said Beth weakly, “Did you get the camera footage from Felix’s building yet?” “Nope. Turns out both the landlord and building manager are out of town. We probably won’t have that for a week or so.” “Damn it.  I was hoping that might rule her out” sighed Beth. “Yeah, maybe, but let’s get back to the cell phone.   She’s carrying a bag in the video.  You know where that might be?” asked Art.  “No…wait! Now that I think about it, she said something about needing to go back for her bag just before the car accident.  It’s probably at her friend Sherry’s place.  Want me to go get it?” said Beth. “Yeah.  Do that.  I want to see what’s in there and I bet we’re going to find that cell phone.” grumbled Art. 

After the waitress came and took their order, Beth told Art about the arraignment and bond setting that afternoon. 

“Neihaus, huh? Yeah, I heard she’s good, but she’s gonna have to be, because Rachel Duncan doesn’t like to lose. I’ve had a bunch of cases with her.  Not gonna lie, she’s not my favorite.” said Art diplomatically. 

“I can’t stand her either. You should have seen the way she looked at me when I told her Sarah was my sister. Like I needed to be deloused or something.” shuddered Beth. 

“Can I ask you something? About Sarah.” asked Art tentatively.

“Sure” said Beth in a resigned tone.

“What’s the story there?  I know you lost your mom when you were little, spent time in foster care and all that, but I’ve met Charlotte and even your foster brother, Felix.  You talk about them, but you hardly ever talk about Sarah and then to meet her—she’s like some bizarro version of you.”

“That’s one way to put it” chuckled Beth. “We’ve never done any genetic testing, but if I had to guess, based on how we look, I’d say Sarah and I had the same father and Charlotte has a different dad. Anyway, Sarah and I don’t exactly get along.”

“I would imagine.  I’ve seen her record” said Art.

“Yeah and that’s just her adult charges. She’s been getting in trouble like that since she was a kid. Dropped out of high school at 17.  I’m not sure she’s a drug addict per se, but she’s into all that and definitely drinks an ungodly amount. I don’t think she’s ever even had a job. No fixed address.  Most of the time we don’t know where she is, what she’s doing.  She’ll disappear for months. When she does show up, she’ll apologize and say she wants to turn things around, but it never lasts.”

“How long was she with Vic?” asked Art.

“They met in high school. We knew he was bad news-- abusive, sold drugs.  Honestly, though she was already into all that anyway. She’s such a hot head too.  It was a recipe for disaster. Sometimes she would break things off with him, but she always ended up back with him after a while.  I think they were more business partners than anything. I’ve never really understood why she’s like this….” Beth drifted off before continuing, “Well, that’s not true. She’s like our mum, I guess.”

“Your biological mom?” asked Art.

Beth nodded.

“How old were you when she died?”

“Nine. Sarah was six and Charlotte was three.  She was an addict.  Died of an overdose. We found her, you know--me and Sarah.”

“Yeah?”

“Came home from school one day.  I thought she was sleeping at first and Charlotte was just playing there on the floor beside her with her paper dolls.  By the time the paramedics arrived, it was too late. Before that we had been living with her mum.  Gran was nice and she looked after us, but she had a stroke and died so we moved into this tiny flat. There were always people coming and going. Mostly guys. I think Mum mostly tried to hold it together during the day so she could look after Charlotte, but when Sarah and I got home from school, she usually made us stay in the bedroom and watch TV while she got high or whatever. I remember trying to do my homework and keep Charlotte entertained, but Sarah would get angry, pick fights with me and sometimes even Charlotte. Actually, she still likes to pick fights with me. I once had a shrink that said she probably ‘transferred’ her anger from our mum to me or something like that.”

“Wow.  I don’t really know what to say” said Art.

“Yeah. It’s not something I usually talk about. Anyway, after a couple of years in the foster care system, we landed with Siobhan.  She tried her best with us.  I mean Charlotte turned out great, but Sarah…well, with Sarah everything’s always been hard, but let’s talk about something else.” said Beth. “Okay” said Art.

After dinner, Beth drove over to Sherry’s apartment in Paul’s SUV since her car was totaled in the accident.  She knocked on the door and when it opened she found yet another party in full swing.  She asked for Sherry and eventually a disheveled women came to the door with a quizzical look on her face. “You look just like Sarah.” she slurred. “Yeah, I know. She’s my sister.  Did she leave her bag here?” said Beth with her most winning smile. “I already gave it to your other sister” said Sherry.  “Seriously? When?” asked Beth. “I dunno. This afternoon?” “Okay, thanks” said Beth.  “Damnit!” muttered Beth as she walked away. Beth drove straight to the bar where she knew Charlotte was working that night.  

When she arrived, the bar was mostly empty. There were a couple of tables of people talking quietly, but the only person sitting at the bar was Felix, tucking into a pint of Guinness.  Charlotte was sitting by him on a stool on the other side of the bar sipping a cup of coffee with her legs crossed. 

“Hey!” said Charlotte, “How’d it go at the courthouse?”

“Crappy” said Beth as she sat down next to Felix.

“What does that mean exactly?” asked Felix.  

“Well” continued Beth, “She drew the world’s worst prosecutor, they charged her with Second Degree Murder and Aggravated Assault and the judge set her bond at $400,000 so unless one of you has a spare $40,000 laying around she’s stuck in jail until her trial. Either that or we clear her and unless someone comes to the station to confess, I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

“Oh god” said Felix as he took a large gulp of his beer. 

“Can I get you something?” asked Charlotte. 

“Yeah. I’ll take a bourbon on the rocks” said Beth. 

“Fitting. Maybe you two are more alike than you let on.” Charlotte laughed as she got up to fix Beth’s drink.

“Well,” said Beth, “as I don’t plan to have twelve of them the similarities end there.”   

When Charlotte returned with Beth’s drink, Beth got to the point, “Charlotte, did you go pick up Sarah’s bag at Sherry’s today?”

“Yeah” said Charlotte at the same time as Felix said, “What?” sitting up with alarm. Charlotte looked confused while Beth fixed Felix with a penetrating look.

“Why are you asking?” asked Charlotte.

“Did you go through it?” asked Beth carefully. 

“Yeah, I mean I’m not an idiot, you know.  I know better than to just take Sarah at her word, but there’s not so much as a bag of weed in there. It’s just a bunch of clothes and a few odds and ends.” 

“Was there a cell phone?” asked Beth.  

Charlotte nodded.

“Is it at your place?” said Beth.

“Yeah, why?” said Charlotte.

“It’s evidence. Can I have your keys? I’m going to need to go collect it” said Beth. 

“I’ve got a key to Charlotte’s place.  I’ll come with you” offered Felix. 

“You…” Charlotte wheeled around, “were supposed to give that back to me!”

“Why?” smirked Felix, “Is Jed back from Kentucky?”

“He’s called Jay and he’s from Virginia and that’s none of your bloody concern” said Charlotte.

“Oh believe me, I wish it weren’t” muttered Felix.

“Please. No. Just stop. I don’t need to hear this again” plead Beth with her hands up in the air.

“Oh for god’s sake!” Charlotte pointed at Beth, “You live with your boyfriend, so don’t be such a prude, and you…” she pointed at Felix, “don’t even get me started—at least I haven’t memorialized my sex life in oil paint. Just walking into your flat is to be fully immersed into your love life.  Now you both need to grow up and stop being such complete and utter hypocrites, alright?” Then she smiled, “Leave the key when you’re done” and got up to help a customer leaving Beth in stunned silence and Felix to opine, “She has a point there, I guess.”

After they left the bar, Felix and Beth began walking to Charlotte’s studio apartment which was just a few blocks away.

“Felix,” Beth paused, “What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

“Nothing, really.  It’s just with Sarah you never really know, do you?” said Felix.

“No, you really don’t” sighed Beth.  

He continued, “You know how she lives, right? What she and Vic were up to. I just didn’t like the idea of Charlotte getting involved in any of that.”

“What do you mean?” said Beth putting her hand on his arm to stop him from walking any further.  

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now, since Charlotte says there’s nothing to worry about in the bag, but Sarah might have given me the impression there was something to worry about if you know what I mean.”

 “Does it have anything to do with Vic’s murder?” asked Beth.

“She says no” said Felix.

“Do you believe her?” asked Beth.  

Felix paused, “I think so.”

“Would you tell me if you didn’t?” asked Beth.  

After another pause, ”This time round…yeah” said Felix.

“Do you think Sarah knows who murdered Vic?” mused Beth.

“Probably, but she’s scared.  She, and I quote, ‘hopes the cops go all CSI on this shit’ to prove she didn’t do it” said Felix. 

“Felix, you know it doesn’t work like that in real life most of the time” said Beth.

“Yeah, I know” said Felix. They walked the rest of the way to Charlotte’s apartment in silence.

Like Beth’s place, Charlotte’s studio apartment was neat as a pin. She had procured most of her furniture second-hand.  Her taste ran toward mid-century modern.  In pride of place was a vintage record cabinet that housed an expensive record player and speakers. Felix had built her a wooden case for storing her growing and eclectic collection of LPs.  Sarah’s bag was sitting by the couch.  Charlotte didn’t have much in terms of storage space.  She had been planning on washing Sarah’s clothes and then taking it over to store in Siobhan’s basement.  Beth pulled a pair of rubber gloves from her purse and collected the bag. She’d investigate its contents further when she got home.


	9. Chapter 9

   
When she got home, Beth put Sarah’s bag on her kitchen table. She should have taken it straight to Art. However, after seeing Felix’s reaction when he heard Charlotte had retrieved the bag and his cryptic comments about what Sarah told him, Beth’s curiosity got the best of her and she wanted to see if Charlotte had missed something.  Still wearing her rubber gloves, she began carefully removing its contents.  As she worked she rationalized what she was doing to herself—Charlotte had already inadvertently tampered with it anyway. What did it matter if she went through it too? After unpacking and searching the clothes, Beth bagged the cell phone and charger in a plastic evidence bag.  A part of her didn’t even want to know if Sarah and Vic were texting that night anyway.  When Beth got to the junk on the bottom of the bag, she read every scrap of paper but there wasn’t anything incriminating.  Heaving a sigh of relief, she turned to begin putting Sarah’s clothes back into the bag when her cat jumped up on the table and knocked the bag onto the floor.  It gave a distinct thud that sounded all wrong for a mostly empty duffel.  She picked up the bag and as she felt around the sides with her gloved hands she felt something rectangular in the lining.  She retrieved a pen light and ran it around the seams of the bag until she found an opening and pulled out a small manila envelope.  Inside it was $20,000 in $100 bills. 

Beth set the money on her coffee table, poured herself a rather generous bourbon on the rocks, sat on the couch and stared at the package like it was a bomb about to go off.  If she put it back, the money might just be enough for a talented attorney like Rachel Duncan to turn this circumstantial murder case into a conviction.  After all, $20,000 was the amount mentioned in Vic’s midnight texts and provided an easy narrative for Rachel to feed the jury on motive--people killed for far less. On the other hand, if she did what she was contemplating, could she live with herself?  As she mulled things over, she kept coming back to the fact that her gut told her Sarah hadn’t killed Vic.  Now, Sarah had almost certainly stolen from Vic and sold a large quantity of drugs, but like Siobhan said, if she had killed Vic either on purpose or in self-defense, she’d run, not come by for Christmas tea like nothing had happened.   Sarah stealing from Vic didn’t bother her in the least.  Sarah selling $20,000 of coke or whatever bothered her some, but not enough to want Sarah to go down for a murder she didn’t commit. 

Several hours and a third of a bottle of bourbon later, she stood up, retrieved a shoe box from her closet, stashed the cash inside of it and then returned the shoebox to the top shelf of her closet.  Then, she put Sarah’s clothes back in the bag, threw away her rubber gloves and went to bed feeling like shit.  Now they’d both committed felonies--maybe she and Sarah weren’t so different after all.

The next morning Beth took the bag and the cellphone to the station. When she got there, she found Art watching the footage of Sarah at the diner.  Art kept going back over the part where Sarah came in and sat down and then the unknown man came in and joined her.  “Do you see that there?” said Art, “Does that look like she set something down on the opposite side of the booth when she came in?” “Maybe?” agreed Beth feeling sick to her stomach, but it was too grainy to see for sure.  “Okay now, look at that. The man’s carrying a newspaper, sets it down on the booth for a minute and takes it with him when he leaves. That could be an exchange, right?” “I guess” conceded Beth, “but you can’t tell for sure, can you?” God, she hated this and she wanted to throttle Sarah. 

“I went to see her last night” said Art. “Oh yeah?” said Beth. “I asked her about all this. She says she didn’t know the guy, that he came in and just sat down and started hitting on her, that she told him to bugger off and that he did.”

“And the cell phone?” asked Beth.

“Yeah. She says she was still kinda woozy from the accident and ‘forgot’ she had one which I don’t believe at all.  When I asked her who she was talking to when she walked up to the diner, she said she was calling for a train schedule. We’ll have to see about that, won’t we?” said Art.

“Yeah. Did she seem alright?” asked Beth. 

“I’m not gonna lie, she looked pretty rough. Broken ribs on a prison cot without any real pain meds can’t be fun.  On top of that she looked kinda pale and was coughing like she’d caught a bug or something. Could just be detoxing, I guess.” said Art.

“Could be. I should probably go see her tonight” sighed Beth and just like that her anger dissipated into guilt and worry.

***

But Beth didn’t go see Sarah that night or even that week.  She told herself it was because she wanted to wait and see what else the investigation turned up or what the IT people at the precinct found on the cell phone, but really it was because she didn’t know what to say to her anyway.  Being on administrative leave that week sucked.  It gave her way too much time to be alone, stuck in her own head, pacing around her condo, staring at the shoebox and second-guessing herself.  It was like that Edgar Allen Poe story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”—a constant reminder that she was a crappy cop, a crappy sister and an even crappier person.

After Sarah had been in jail for a little over a week, Charlotte called and asked her to meet for coffee one morning at a diner about halfway between their houses. Felix had gone to see Sarah the day before and said she looked just pathetic. She had a terrible cough which combined with her broken ribs had her practically doubled over in pain and shaking. Beth’s conscience had roiled and she had immediately called over to County to make sure she saw the doctor at the jail.  Turns out she had pneumonia which was a common side effect of broken ribs when you can’t really take a deep breath. They put her on oral antibiotics.  If she didn’t improve in a couple of days, she might have to be admitted to the hospital for a course of IV antibiotics. Charlotte and Siobhan were going to go over later that day to check on her. 

“Do you want to come with us?” asked Charlotte after their lattes arrived.

“I probably shouldn’t” said Beth.

“Why? I mean you’re allowed to, right?” said Charlotte.

“Yeah. I’m allowed” said Beth carefully.

“But you haven’t you been to the jail yet, have you?” asked Charlotte. Beth could see this was the real agenda for Charlotte wanting to meet her for coffee.  She knew Felix, Siobhan and Charlotte had all seen her twice.

“No.” Beth sighed and began rubbing her temples with her eyes closed. 

Charlotte watched her with a faint smirk on her face.  Beth liked talking about her feelings almost as much as Sarah did. “Are you going to tell me why or am I supposed to guess?” smiled Charlotte.

Beth looked up and smirked back at Charlotte, “I think maybe….” she paused, “I’ve been putting it off because I don't really want to talk to her about all this. I’m afraid she’ll tell me something I don’t want to hear or pick a fight with me and I’ll end up saying something I’ll regret. I mean I don’t think she murdered Vic. I don’t want her rotting away in jail and I will do everything I possibly can to prevent that, but none of this would be happening if her whole goddamned life weren’t such a race to the bottom. I’m just so sick of it.”

“Yeah. No, I definitely get that and on some level I think she gets it too, but Beth, she thinks you’re staying away because you think she’s guilty and I think that’s crushing her. Okay?” said Charlotte.

It was weird being lectured by Charlotte, but she was probably right. “Okay, I’ll go, but when I do, I think I should go by myself.”

 “Good” smiled Charlotte, then quickly changing tacks, “Anything to report?”  

“Well, the good news is they didn’t find anything on her cellphone tying her to the murder. It wasn’t the number that Vic was texting just before he was killed, she didn’t call or text him or anyone else after she left him on the 24th. In fact, the only call she made on the 24th or the 25th was to the train station on Christmas morning on her way into the diner and she didn’t receive any calls during that time period either.”

“Well that’s good, I guess.  Although are they going to try and make it seem like she was trying to skip town on a train right after she murdered Vic?” mused Charlotte.

“I suspect they will, but at least she stayed and had Christmas lunch with us which kind of undercuts that argument” said Beth.

“Yeah, about that. Felix and I both got served with a trial subpoenas this morning. Apparently, her trial’s set for March 24th which is in about ten weeks.  We also both got messages from Sarah’s lawyer saying she wanted to set up a phone interview” said Charlotte.

“I’m not surprised. You should call her back.  Don’t worry, she’s nice.  She’s just going to ask about when you saw Sarah at Felix’s that night, what time you left and when you next saw her.  You’ll probably also be getting a call from the prosecutor wanting to ask you the same thing.  She’s not so nice, but just tell them both the truth. There’s nothing else you can do” said Beth wishing she could just take her own advice.


	10. Chapter 10

The following day Rachel Duncan was in her office reviewing police reports when she heard a knock on her door. Her face registered irritation for a fleeting second at the interruption before she quickly rearranged her features into a composed professional smile. “Ah…Cosima, come in. Is it really noon already?” “Yep.” smiled Cosima carrying two chopped salads from the courthouse cafeteria. Cosima and Rachel had a standing lunch date every other week. After they realized almost 40% of their caseload overlapped, they had agreed to bi-weekly lunches so they could debate their cases, exchange required information, discuss scheduling issues and hammer out plea deals. They usually met in one of their offices rather than in the courthouse cafeteria. This was largely for Cosima’s benefit. Her clients were already skeptical that a free court-appointed lawyer would fight for them. If they or their families thought they saw her fraternizing with the enemy, they’d doubt her loyalties even more.

Very few criminal cases actually go to trial. The reality is most of the time the evidence is overwhelming the defendant will be found guilty--at least as to some of their charges. Prosecutors of course know this so they like to throw the kitchen sink at defendants to facilitate plea deals. In one of the cases they planned to discuss that day, Cosima’s client threw the first punch in a bar fight caught on a security camera, then threw a glass at the victim during the fight, argued with the police when they showed up and then jerked his hand away from the police while they were handcuffing him. Rachel charged him not only with “assault and battery” and “disorderly conduct,” (things the tape easily proved) but also with “assault with a deadly weapon,” “disturbing the peace” and “resisting arrest” (things that were a bit of stretch). Cosima met with her client and made sure he understood the reality of the situation (“Dude. The prosecution has video and it shows you started the fight. Want to watch it?”) Today, she wanted to convince Rachel to whittle the charges down to what the client “actually” did (“Rachel, you know damn well under Kirschner a glass doesn’t meet the definition of a deadly weapon” etc.). In exchange for a guilty plea as to the “assault and battery” charge, Rachel agreed to dismiss the rest of the charges and recommend a sentence of time served. Judges aren’t bound by sentencing recommendations, but in the spirit of facilitating plea deals, most of the time they go along with them as long as they’re remotely reasonable. As they were finishing their salads, they got around to Sarah’s case. 

“Rachel, it’s like I said at the arraignment, your fingerprint evidence isn’t going to get you over the hump because she lived there. I talked to the siblings and there’s just a small window of her time that’s currently unaccounted for during the time range forensics says he was killed. I don’t think she did it and when we get the rest of the video surveillance from the exits to the brother’s loft, I think it’s gonna prove the rest of her alibi.”

“Perhaps Cosima, but you’re turning a blind eye to some very inconvenient facts for your client. I trust you’re familiar with principle of Occam’s Razor.”

“Yes,” Cosima rolled her eyes. However, sensing Rachel had a prepared speech on the topic she smiled and said, ”Go on then.”

“If you insist,” Rachel began, “As you likely know Occam’s Razor or lex parsimoniae is the principle that when one is presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem, one should select the answer that makes the fewest assumptions. Which is to say, the simplest explanation is usually the right one and here given the evidence, the simplest and most elegant explanation is that Ms. Manning killed Mr. Schmidt. I have fingerprints on the knife. I have motive—the neighbor will testify they had a violent altercation over drug money the day before. And we have no other suspects. As such, I’m confident the jury will see the light” said Rachel with a smile of her own. “Nevertheless,” she continued, “I might be willing to consider reducing the charges to manslaughter with a recommendation she serve a term of 3 years, plus two years parole in light of the couples’ history of domestic violence.”

Cosima shook her head and smiled, “Yeah, I’ll pass that along, but I can’t recommend it to her at this point. I should also tell you I’ll be filing a motion later today to exclude your forensic expert’s testimony on the alleged height of the killer based on the angle of the entrance wound…”

“Which you will lose” interrupted Rachel dismissively.

“I don’t know, Rachel. My forensic guy says your science on that’s shaky. The entrance wound angles up, but what if the victim was laying down rather than standing up? Your guy’s report doesn’t account for that or the massive height disparity between my client and the victim. She’d practically have to have her hand at her eye level when she stabbed him. How’s someone of her stature going to generate enough force to pierce his sternum with a dull kitchen knife when her hands are practically over her head? Anyway, I’ve also drafted motions to admit evidence of Mr. Schmidt’s prior violent acts as to Ms. Manning and to suppress the interview of my client at the hospital following the car accident in light of her concussion.”

“Which you will also lose on both accounts. Unless, your client plans to assert self-defense, their prior history of domestic violence is not in any way relevant to the proceedings. Also, the doctor did a rather thorough cognitive exam which she passed with flying colors before Detective Bell began his interrogation.”

“Yes, but not before she was questioned by Detective Childs who then passed everything Ms. Manning said along to her partner. I mean she wasn’t just there as her sister that night, was she? I think she was also investigating.” mused Cosima.

“Well, I suppose that does raise an interesting issue” said Rachel thoughtfully. 

***

The following day Rachel summoned Beth to her office. Beth knew this was probably coming but it didn’t make her any dread it any less. After she’d waited in the County Attorney’s office reception area almost an hour past the time they’d agreed to meet, Rachel finally arrived. She barely slowed as she swept past Beth into the office, “My apologies, Detective Childs. I’m sure you know how Judge Mason likes to carry on,” and motioned for Beth to follow her without even turning around. After Beth sat down in Rachel’s office, Rachel sifted through the stack of files on her desk and pulled out Sarah’s file. “Now, thank you for coming. I have a few questions about your sister as well as your role in the investigation in this matter.”

“Fire away” said Beth with a weak attempt at a smile.

“Well, let’s start at the beginning. What can you tell me about your sister’s character?” said Rachel peering over her file to look at Beth.

“Her character? I don’t…know what you mean.” said Beth.

“You don’t know what the word character means?” said Rachel.

“Of course, I know what the word character means. I…I…don’t know why you’re asking me. I mean you’ve…seen her record” stammered Beth.

“Fine,” sighed Rachel, “Let me be more specific. Do you believe she killed Mr. Schmidt?”

“No” said Beth carefully.

“Thank you. Why?” said Rachel.

“Um… a lot of things, I guess. Mostly, she’s a complete mess, but she’s just not violent in that way.” said Beth.

“Well, she does have prior misdemeanor assault charges.”

“True, but that’s more like her being drunk and stupid at a bar and mouthing off at somebody. She’s never really hurt anyone.”

“As a police detective, surely you’ve had the experience of encountering someone who appeared incapable of committing a violent act, but it later turned out they had done so?” said Rachel like she was leading a classroom discussion for remedial students.

“Of course, but...”

“But what” Rachel interrupted, “It’s different here because it’s your sister?”

Beth gave Rachel a penetrating look and exhaled, “Yes. I suppose it is different. I mean I know my sister in a way I don’t know most suspects and I saw her that day. I know how she acts when shit’s about to hit the fan. She runs away. She wouldn’t have shown up at our foster mother’s for Christmas lunch—she knows Siobhan’s like a human lie detector. Also, she wouldn’t have wanted to be around me if she had done something like that.”

“Because you’re a police officer?” asked Rachel.

“Sort of” said Beth vaguely.

“About that. I must ask that you have no further involvement in this investigation. As you must know, you have a conflict of interest. Also, the defense has already filed a motion to exclude any statements your sister gave Detective Bell in the hospital because you questioned her before she’d been read her rights and gone through the concussion protocol.”

“What? No, that’s bullshit! I just went and found her and brought her in! I didn’t even tell her about Vic until she woke up the next morning wondering why she was handcuffed to the hospital bed. What was I supposed to say?” snapped Beth.

“Either way. Stay out of this. You also should be aware I’ve conveyed a rather generous plea deal to Ms. Neihaus—manslaughter, she serves three years. If your sister doesn’t see the light and accept, I will be taking this case to trial and I don’t plan to lose. If you really want to help your sister, perhaps you should make sure she understands the gravity of the situation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for my next hearing.” 

And without waiting for Beth to respond, Rachel picked up another file and began reading. As Beth was gathering her things, she glanced at her phone and saw she had a missed call from Siobhan. She began listening to Siobhan’s message as she crossed the courthouse rotunda to the parking garage. Sarah hadn’t responded to the antibiotics and her fever spiked so she was being transferred to the secure wing of the hospital. Beth sighed and drove back to the station. 

She was still on desk duty and spent the rest of the afternoon distractedly filling out paperwork on her and Art’s cases. She went home around 7pm, fed her cat and ate a bowl of cereal for dinner. She tried calling Siobhan for an update, but kept getting voicemail so around 9pm she gave up and drove to the hospital. When she arrived, she flashed her badge and was admitted to the secure area of the county hospital. She located Sarah’s room and found Siobhan sitting beside her bed working on a Sudoku puzzle. “Her lung collapsed and she’s sedated. She’ll be alright though, love,” said Siobhan. Beth winced and sat down heavily. Sarah was just so pale. She had a nasal cannula feeding her oxygen, her breathing was rough and shallow and she looked as thin as Beth had ever seen her. As Beth began to cry, Siobhan pulled her into a hug, “I know, I know, but this isn’t your fault, chicken.” “I haven’t even been to see her, Siobhan” said Beth quietly. “Well, you’re here now, aren’t you?” said Siobhan. Beth nodded. “Tell you what” said Siobhan, “Maybe you could stay here with her tonight and then after you’ve had a chance to talk in the morning we’ll have Felix come by to take over. Okay?” “Yeah” squeaked Beth. Siobhan gathered her things and then squeezed Beth’s shoulder on her way out. “You know,” sighed Siobhan, “if we can get her through this somehow, maybe this’ll be her wake up call.”


	11. Chapter 11

Beth woke with a start the next morning as the sun began to peak through the blinds into Sarah’s room.  She stood up and quietly stretched her neck and back which were sore from sleeping in the uncomfortable hospital chair and then sat back down and watched her sister sleep. She found herself thinking that this was probably the first good night’s sleep Sarah had had in the weeks since the accident. Who knows? Maybe even longer than that. When Sarah woke about an hour later and saw Beth sitting beside her bed, her face registered a fleeting moment of surprise before regressing into her familiar scowl.

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this” said Beth with a slight smile.

 After an uncomfortable silence, Sarah grumbled, “Took you long enough.” 

 “I know” Beth sighed, “How’re you feeling?”

“Like shit,” Sarah winced as she tried of sit up.

“Yeah,” said Beth as she stood up and tried to put her hand on Sarah’s forehead to gauge her temperature.

 “Stop it,” barked Sarah, as she irritably swatted Beth’s hand away and went into a coughing fit.

“Jeez, take it easy…Should I call the doctor?” said Beth as she backed off.

“No…I’m fine. Why are you even here anyway?”

 “Oh come on, Sarah…I’m sorry” sighed Beth, “I should’ve come to see you. I’ve been busy and I….”

“No, you’ve been on leave” interrupted Sarah.

“I know. It’s just…complicated.”

“No, it’s actually not complicated at all. It’s simple. You just can’t decide, can you?” said Sarah with a dark smile.

“Decide what?” said Beth, nonplussed.

“Whether I’m guilty.”

Beth narrowed her eyes, “Actually, I don’t think you did it.”

“Bullshit. If you really thought that, you’d be trying to help.”

“I am trying to help you!” snapped Beth, “It’s just as usual, you’re making it really hard.  I think you know a hell of a lot more about this than you told Art, so I’m not going to sit here and let you turn this into some pity party.  Of course, I don’t think you killed Vic, but you’re not entirely innocent either.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Jesus, Sarah! Can you own just like a little of this? This is the kind of shit that happens to people like you.”

“People like me? Okay…what kind of person am I, Elizabeth?” said Sarah in an icy tone.

“No. We’re not doing this. Not now,” said Beth as she shook her head.

“Yeah, we are. Here, I’ll start. You’re a self-righteous, judgmental bitch. Your turn.”

“Nice.” Beth chuckled bitterly. Then she took a deep breath, “All I meant is you know damn well you’re mixed up in some serious shit with some seriously bad people so you can’t be that surprised about any of this.  And you know what? I don’t even want to know the whole story. I know way too much as is, but if you know who did this, you need to tell someone because the prosecution is about ready to take this case to trial and Rachel Duncan is really good at what she does. You could end up serving some serious time for something you didn’t do.”

“Bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Tell you what, I don’t need nothin’ from you. My lawyer says I shouldn’t be talking to you anyway in case you’re being a cop instead of my sister.”

Beth stood up, muttered “I give up” and began putting on her coat. Then she stopped and turned back to face Sarah, “No. You want to know the real reason I haven’t been to see you? It’s because I wasn’t sure I could stand to be in the same room with you right now. I CANNOT BELIEVE you sent Charlotte blindly into to a seedy drug den to pick up your damn drug money that you got from selling the drugs you STOLE FROM A MURDER VICTIM DURING A PENDING INVESTIGATION! How could you do that? What’s wrong with you? I mean she has no idea what you had her do, but you know damn well she could have gotten hurt or in bigtime trouble.  Hell, she could have been charged as an accessory to a major drug crime or even obstruction of justice in the murder investigation!”

Sarah looked stunned. “I didn’t know the cops had the money” she whispered.

“They don’t. Best of luck to you.” Then Beth swept out of the room.

***

Sarah spent the next 5 days in the hospital recovering from pneumonia and her collapsed lung.  Felix, Siobhan and Charlotte took turns visiting her and were pleased to see that the IV antibiotics seemed to be working—her temperature was down, she was eating, her color was improving and she seemed much more comfortable.  She had also gotten to swap the dingy plaster cast on her broken wrist for a removable brace.  Her mood on the other hand was hard to read. It was like the fight had gone out of her. None of them could tell if she was just depressed over the prospect of going back to jail or if she was just plain worn out from the whole ordeal.  She refused to talk about her case other than to say, “I didn’t do it, and we’ll just have to wait and see.”  They gathered Beth and Sarah had had quite a row but as neither of them would talk about it, no one really knew what it was about.  

Beth got off administrative leave and threw herself into her work. She and Art were busy investigating a series of bank heists police believed were related to organized crime. Paul came home which helped distract Beth from thinking about Sarah, but he grew somewhat alarmed at Beth’s mood as well.  She was distracted and withdrawn, worked late most nights and when she was home she was having trouble sleeping through the night. Anytime he or anyone else brought up Sarah, she shut them down with a dismissive, “I don’t want to get into it, alright.” She wouldn’t even entertain the idea of going back to the hospital.

A few days after Sarah was released from the hospital and transferred back to County, Art finally received the security camera footage from Felix’s building from December 24th and December 25th.  Luckily for Sarah it showed both entrances to the building and there weren’t any gaps.  Like she had told police, she had arrived a little before 9pm on the 24th and didn’t leave until 5:45am on the 25th.  Since the cameras at the diner showed Sarah arriving there at 5:59am, it meant the only way Sarah could have killed Vic would be if it were possible for her to get from Felix’s loft to Vic’s apartment to the diner in 14 minutes.  After Art relayed this information to Beth, she inwardly heaved a sigh of relief, sent a perfunctory group text to the others to share the news and then went back to work.  She assumed that information would be enough to force Rachel Duncan to dismiss the charges, but when a week had passed without the dismissal, Beth began to worry. 


	12. Chapter 12

Despite spending a lot of time in the County Courthouse over the years, Beth had never actually set foot in the Public Defenders’ office before.  It turned out to be a dreary windowless place tucked away in the sub-basement complete with run-down furniture and dated computers.  The reception area was teeming with quite the cross-section of humanity. The waiting clients ranged from stereotypical-looking criminals straight out of central casting to shamed teenagers sullenly sitting with their disappointed parents and everything in between.   Beth, who was trying to keep a low profile as she waited, was just praying she hadn’t arrested any of these people.  It had been ten days since the security camera evidence from Felix’s loft had arrived and Sarah was still sitting in jail.  So even though she had been specifically ordered by both her Lieutenant and Rachel Duncan to stay out of the investigation and she was still so angry with Sarah that she was having imaginary arguments with her in her head, Beth had decided it was time to take matters into her own hands.  

After about twenty minutes, Cosima Neihaus emerged from one of the hallways behind the front desk, said goodbye to her client, smiled at Beth and waved her back.  When they got to her office, Cosima sat down behind her cluttered desk and gestured for Beth to take a seat. Cosima’s office had sort of a warm, nutty professor feel to it. There were packed shelves of leather bound legal books, messy stacks of files covering almost every surface, a lovely Persian rug on the floor, comfortable leather chairs for her clients (which were clearly not government issued furniture), a large strange oil painting on the wall of what appeared to be a medieval soldier and miniature models of the Star Trek Enterprise in various iterations on the shelf behind her.  

“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice” began Beth.

“Of course,” grinned Cosima, “It’s nice to actually meet you in person Detective Childs.  I know we’ve met in the courtroom before, but since I was cross-examining you at the time I don’t think that really counts.”

“No probably not. You can call me Beth by the way.” 

“Okay. But I have to say Beth, I was a little surprised to hear from you. You know I can’t really discuss Sarah’s case with you.”

“I totally understand, but I really thought the County Attorney would have dismissed the charges by now in light of the evidence from the security cameras at my brother’s building.  Rachel Duncan can’t seriously think Sarah could get from Felix’s to Vic’s and then to the diner—much less with time to stop off and kill someone---in the span of 14 minutes, can she? It’s completely ridiculous!”

Cosima burst out laughing. “I’m sorry it’s just that’s almost exactly what I said to Rachel last week. Um…I think her exact words in response were ‘I will take that under advisement, Cosima.’” She said the last part in a serviceable impersonation of Rachel.  In fairness, almost everyone who worked in the Courthouse, including the all the judges, could do a passable Rachel because everyone had a good “Oh my God” Rachel Duncan story and seriously, who talks like that anyway?

“But you haven’t heard back from her?”

“Not yet, but I happen to know she’s on holiday at the moment. Don’t tell your sister this cuz it will just piss her off, but she’s--and I’m not making this up--in Switzerland at some spa doing yoga and mediation while she practices her German and undergoes some ridiculous master cleanse. Believe me, I was sorry I even asked. Anyway, for what it’s worth, when she gets back I think she’ll dismiss the charges once she’s gotten over the disappointment.”

“The disappointment?” said Beth.

“Well, she sort of lives to try cases but they almost all settle or are otherwise slam dunks--except ones like this--that are sort of all or nothing, high stakes and gray if you know what I mean.  This one would have been a huge challenge for her which is exactly what she likes. Honestly, though Rachel’s not really the monster everyone makes her out to be. She’s just intense and a bit shall we say, lacking in social skills, but she’s also practical and realistic. She’s not going to take something to trial she can’t win.”

“Well,” said Beth, as she handed Cosima a spreadsheet, “If she needs a little push, I’ve timed the fastest routes from Felix’s to Vic’s and from Vic’s to the diner by walking, running, biking, driving, bus, subway, taxi and Uber between 5 and 6 am on three separate days including on a weekend.  I put the numbers into this spreadsheet.  This column shows the distance and this one shows the various modes of travel and the time each took on each of the days.  Here’s where I show the actual, median and average times for each route and each mode of travel.  As you can see the fastest round trip between these three points is 34 minutes by car and that’s not even accounting for any extra time for someone to get into Vic’s apartment to kill him. I know this can’t be evidence because it’s my data and I’m her sister, but I thought maybe you could use it and if necessary have one of your investigator’s re-create it.”

“Wow” said Cosima, “This is fantastic. Remind me to never question your attention to detail on the stand. Just kidding, I’m always going to question your attention to detail on the stand. But, seriously, I’ll definitely take another run at Rachel when she gets back. Hopefully she’ll be so blissed out from her trip that she sees the light!”

“Thank you. And thanks for helping Sarah.  She’s not always the easiest to deal with.”

“Of course. It’s my job, but I have to say as far as murder suspects go, she’s a piece of cake. Probably because she didn’t actually do it,” laughed Cosima.

“True, and that’s probably the first time anyone’s ever said that about her, but thank you anyway” said Beth as she stood up to leave.  “Hey, can I ask you something?” said Beth pointing at the oil painting on the wall of the medieval soldier, “Who’s that?”

“Oh...that’s my Don Quixote. My wife gave it to me as a joke but I love it. He’s sort of like the patron saint of Public Defenders.”

“Really?”

“Well no, but he should be. You know--impractical idealism, lost causes, tilting at windmills and all that” smiled Cosima.

***

Three weeks later, just as Beth was about to leave the station to go home for the day, Cosima called and told her that Rachel Duncan had just filed the paperwork to formally dismiss the charges against Sarah.  They expected Sarah to be processed out of jail within the hour.   Beth’s eyes filled with hot tears as she thanked Cosima for letting her know and for all her help.  Then, she hung up the phone and immediately called Siobhan, Felix and Charlotte.  

It was quickly decided that Felix would pick Sarah up at the jail and take her to meet Siobhan for a celebratory dinner at Dante’s, a neighborhood pizzeria a few blocks from Siobhan’s house that had been the site of many a family dinner over the years. It was also Sarah’s absolute favorite place to eat in the whole world.  Beth lied and said she had to work the night shift. No one really believed her but they let it go. Those two would just have to work things out in their own time. Charlotte actually had to work, but made plans to meet up with Felix and Sarah later that evening at Bobby’s Bar.  

***

Less than an hour later, Felix was sitting in a dirty plastic chair at the County Jail just outside the last security checkpoint.  30 minutes after that Sarah emerged carrying a clear plastic bag with some toiletries and paperwork.  When she saw Felix, her face lit up with a big smile.

“Well thank God in heavens!” cried Felix as he pulled her into a giant bear hug which for once she returned in equal measure.

“Yeah” said Sarah who had tears in her eyes which she was wiping away.

“That’s it? ‘Yeah?’ That’s all you’ve got for me?”

“What? What am I a supposed to say?”

“Well, you’ve had what like 54 days to think about it, haven’t you?”

“56” she muttered.

“You’re not at least going to flip off the guards or anything? He said, eyebrows raised.

“People change, Felix” she smirked, “Now let’s get out of here, alright?”

“Yeah right. Well okay, let’s go. S is waitin’ for us. Charlotte and Beth are working, but Charlotte’s gonna meet us after at Bobby’s for a drink--that is, if you’re up for it” said Felix with a side glance at Sarah.

Sarah just laughed and clapped Felix heartily on the shoulder, “You won’t let me do anything really stupid, will you?” 

“Well, now that’s just frightening” smiled Felix.

 “Where we meetin’ S though?” said Sarah.

“It’s a surprise.” Then Felix handed her a black hooded sweatshirt and one of her old winter coats.  After she put them on he reached into his pocket and handed her a black eyeliner pencil and smiled.

“Cheers. But, you know I hate surprises Felix.”

“Oh for God’s sake you’re gonna love it!”

When they arrived at Dante’s, Siobhan was sitting in a red leather booth and had a large sausage and mushroom pizza with extra cheese and a pitcher of beer waiting.  Siobhan smiled as Sarah wordlessly slid into the booth beside her and pulled her into a warm side hug.  She even let out a small laugh as Sarah leaned her head against Siobhan’s shoulder.

“It’s been quite a while since you’ve done that” she laughed.

“Well, it’s not every day I get out of jail for a murder I didn’t commit, now is it?”  

“Thankfully, that’s quite true” said Siobhan as she gestured toward the pizza, “Well, don’t be shy, dig in.”

Sarah grinned and grabbed the biggest slice, folded it over and groaned with indecent pleasure as she took a giant bite.  After they’d all eaten their fill and drank most of the beer, Siobhan leveled her gaze at Sarah and said, “I’d say that’s a right improvement over prison food, isn’t it?”

“That’s for sure” sighed Sarah contentedly as she took a sip of her beer.

“You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever told you, but back in Ireland I once spent a week in jail. I was 23 and had been with some friends of mine. See, we were protesting the military recruitment center--something to do with some ill-founded military adventure overseas and things got a bit out of hand.   It sort of turned into a riot and I threw a bottle at this policeman. He got cut on his arm. Now, the police got a little heavy handed too. A couple of my friends ended up in hospital. So after a week, the charges were all dropped.  It was a bit of a scandal really. But anyway, I just hated it—bein’ in jail that is. I knew I didn’t want to live that way anymore so I made a change.  I went to London and went back to school and eventually found my way to you lot—the loves of my dreary old life.  I brought you all to Canada for a fresh start—for me and for you. You can still have that too you know, Sarah.”

“Yeah” smiled Sarah sheepishly.

“Anyway, I was thinking” continued Siobhan, “You don’t have to decide right now, but if you like, you can come home for a while.  You know my friend Gail, who runs the florist down the road? She’s looking for a delivery person. I bet she’d give you a go—that is if you want to try something new for a while.”

“I’ll think about it” said Sarah quietly.

“One more thing, Sarah. Now I don’t know what you and Elizabeth fought about, but you ought to think long and hard about putting it behind you.  I plan to say the same thing to her too. Sometimes I think you’re just too much alike for your own good.”

“What? No we’re not!” said Sarah.

“She’s right, you are” scoffed Felix, “You’re both stubborn, broody, burn the candle at both ends, go it alone types and you both could probably hold a grudge until the end of time. She’s just chosen to channel all that dark angst into police work and you’ve let’s say—taken it in another direction.”

“Well said” laughed Siobhan, “But listen. Your sister would lay down her life for you and you know it. Work it out.”  

“A toast, then” said Felix, “To new beginnings, alright?”

Sarah smiled, “Yeah, alright-to new beginnings.”


	13. Chapter 13

   
Charlotte showed her ID to the bouncer at the door of Bobby’s Bar. She could hear a band inside blasting through a half decent cover of the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and imagined Sarah just had to be in hog heaven.  After she’d paid the cover and got inside, she quickly located Felix waiting for drinks at the bar.

“You made it!” he cried just as the band segued into “Janie Jones.”

“Wait…no way!” said Charlotte pointing to the stage, “Is this like a Clash tribute band? Seriously, what are the odds?” she laughed.

“Yeah, I know! It’s like it was meant to be, right?” shouted Felix,  
“What’re they called again Bobby?”

“Rudie and the Failures” smiled the woman tending bar.

“Bobby, this is our little sister, Charlotte.  She’s newly of age, but you don’t have to worry about her. She’s by far the most respectable member of the family,” said Felix.

“Well, that’s not saying very much, but nice to meet you anyway,” said Bobby with a smile as she handed Felix two beers and two shots of whiskey, “What can I get ya?”

“Just a beer” said Charlotte pointing at one of the taps.

“You gonna keep these two in line for me tonight, right?” said Bobby as she handed Charlotte her drink.

“That’s asking quite a lot, I think,” said Charlotte with a slight frown as she looked over and saw Sarah bouncing wildly around the crowded dance floor.  Then she turned to Felix, “Who’s she even dancing with?”

“All of them, darling” replied Felix.

After the song ended and the band announced it was taking a break, Sarah made her way over to join Felix and Charlotte at a table by the wall.

“Yeah!” whooped Sarah, “You’re here!”  

“And you’re free!” replied Charlotte giving her a warm hug.  

“This calls for a toast!” intoned Felix. He stood up with a wobble and raised his beer, “Now, I’m serious--to Vic, may he rest in peace.” They all nodded and drank, and then he continued, “And to our dear but dodgy sister, Sarah, and the merciful conclusion of her dodgiest chapter yet!”  

“Here, here,” laughed Charlotte as Sarah swatted Felix on the back of his head causing him to spill part of his beer. “I take it you two’ve been here a while then?” added Charlotte.

“Which means, you have some serious catchin’ up to do!” said Sarah with an evil grin as she picked up one of the shots Felix had just bought and handed Charlotte the other.

“Oh no, no, no,” said Charlotte, “I don’t really like to do shots.”

“What? I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Listen, I’ve been rotting away in prison for two months.  You can at least do one shot with me” said Sarah.

“Fine. I will do one, but that’s it. And, Sarah, after tonight you’re not allowed to play that card again, alright? said Charlotte as she tipped back the shot with a pained look on her face while Sarah tossed back the other one as if it were water.  

“Thatta girl! Oi Bobby! Three more!” shouted Sarah as Charlotte whined “No!” and Felix cackled and slapped her amiably on the back.

By the time the band was back on stage, Charlotte had given up and given in to the inevitable. She’d previously gone out with Felix for a drink or two, but she’d never gone out with Felix and Sarah together before (or with Sarah at all) and now that she was here, it explained a lot.  It was also kind of fun although she knew she’d pay the price the next day. The highlight of the night came later when, in a moment of perfect irony, the band ended its set with “I Fought the Law.” The three of them dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. 

***

Five hours, two bars and an ill-advised after-party with the band later, Felix heaved a semi-conscious Sarah unceremoniously onto his couch after half-carrying her most the way home. Charlotte had long ago gone home and he had stopped drinking hours ago.  “You gonna be alright or do you need to sleep in the bathroom?” he asked kindly as he rolled her on her side.  “Never better,” she mumbled.  “If you say so,” he laughed, “Now sleep tight and here’s Mr. Rubbish-bin if you need him, alright” he said tiredly as he covered her with a blanket. When she snored in response, he trudged over and flopped down spread eagle on his bed.

***

Sarah woke to the sound of Felix bustling around his kitchen and the overpowering aroma of frying eggs and bacon. “Afternoon, sleeping beauty” smiled Felix, “This alright or is it making you sick?”

“Just gonna need a minute here, Fe” grumbled Sarah as she sat up squinting uncomfortably into the midday sun. Felix walked over and handed her a big glass of cold water and several aspirin.  
“Cheers” she replied, “Hey, where’s Charlotte? She make it home alright? I felt kind of bad about we did to her last night.”

Felix laughed. “Yeah, she’s fine. I put her in an Uber around 1 when we left Bobby’s.  Been texting me all morning.  Bless her soul, she’s at work, and I quote, ‘trying not to vomit all over the country music ‘A through K’ rack.’ When you were in jail, she was tagging all her texts with #FreeSarah. Now, it’s changed to #Ihateyouboth.”

“Excellent.” Sarah laughed, “It’s kinda weird to come back and see her all grown up, innit?”

“Oh I don’t know, sometimes I think she’s the only one of us who has her shit together at all” mused Felix.

“Don’t let Elizabeth hear you say that. I think she was born grown-up.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she has her shit together, now does it? Have you seen her medicine cabinet? She might do more drugs than we do.”

“What? I don’t believe that.”

“I think she might,” shrugged Felix. “But anyway, you’re gonna go over there and make peace with her, right?  I mean you’ve got to face her sometime, after all she’s got all your stuff and even you can’t wear those clothes forever.”

“I know,” she moaned, “But I can’t face her just yet.  She’s really mad, and I mostly deserve it.”

“Well, I don’t know what you two said to each other, but she can’t be that mad at you.  You know she’s the one who finally got you sprung you out of there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, even after the County Attorney got the security footage showing you left here at 5:45 that morning, she still wasn’t willing to dismiss it until Beth went all Beautiful Mind and proved no matter what route you took or whether you walked, drove or took any form of transit that it was impossible for you to have made it from here to Vic’s to the diner in 14 minutes. She stayed up like three whole days timing routes and documenting it onto some massive spreadsheet and then took it to your attorney who used it convince the County Attorney to drop the charges.”  

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” Felix let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing, “Alright, now let’s you and I eat these greasy eggs and bacon and commence your first full day of freedom. Now let's see. I propose…,” he paused dramatically, “bong hits and a good nature show with maybe some light napping, followed by bloody marys, darts and pool at Jake’s?”

“God, I love you. You know that right?” sighed Sarah as she blissfully slouched back into a reclining position on the couch and burrowed into the hood of her sweatshirt. 

“I know” smiled Felix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for all the “Felix and Sarah go drinking” tropes that made their way into this chapter. Please note, however, that even though I gave them a serendipitous Clash cover band for their mutual enjoyment on Sarah’s first night of freedom, I refrained from having the band play “London Calling” so it could have been worse. Also, if you’ve never heard “Rudie Can’t Fail” by the Clash you’re missing out.


	14. Chapter 14

   
After Beth was reinstated a few weeks back, she and Art had been assigned to a multi-agency task force created to investigate the recent spree of bank robberies that had been occurring across the greater Toronto area and that afternoon, the task force caught a break. An informant had come forward with information that lead to their first arrest.   As such, that evening Beth and Art found themselves at a cozy neighborhood bar near the downtown office where the task force had been meeting having a celebratory drink with the other members of the team.   As Art shot the breeze with another detective about the ins and outs of coaching youth soccer, Beth’s mind wandered as she surveyed the quiet bar.  It was only then that she caught sight of Rachel Duncan and Cosima Neihaus sitting together in a black leather booth in the back corner of the bar.   Cosima noticed Beth about the same time and waved her over.

“Not exactly who I thought I’d thought I’d run into tonight” said Beth with an awkward smile.

“We’re weirding you out, aren’t we?” grinned Cosima as she took a sip of wine.

“Yeah, kind of” admitted Beth.

“Rachel and I went to law school together. We’ve been friends since we were paired up and won the Moot Court competition second year. We come here from time to time to get away from the courthouse crowd and decompress. That place is like a fishbowl.”

 “Yes. It most certainly is.  Anyway, it’s nice to see you again, Detective Childs” said Rachel.

“You can call me Beth.”  

“Would you care to join us Elizabeth?” said Rachel.  

Cosima snorted, “She just told you to call her Beth!”

“You know how I feel about nicknames, Cosima” said Rachel as she drained her martini.

“You’re insane. You know that, right?” said Cosima.

“It’s fine. Really” laughed Beth, “But I think the only people who call me Elizabeth are my family and that’s only when they’re making fun of me.”

“Another round?” said Rachel, ignoring Cosima.

“Sure, Rach” said Cosima earning a glare.

“And what is it that you’re drinking, Elizabeth?”

“Bourbon on the rocks.” said Beth.

“What make?” asked Rachel.

“Oh, doesn’t matter. Anything’s fine” said Beth which judging by the look on Rachel’s face as she walked away was definitely the wrong answer.

“You realize she’s going to bring you back something super fancy” said Cosima.

“Good to know,” said Beth. Then she shook her head, “I’m sorry. I’m still stuck on you two being friends.”

“I know, right?” smiled Cosima, “Nobody else gets it either. But look, I can’t really explain it other than we’re both female, criminal trial lawyers who work at the courthouse which is a pretty small club.  There aren’t too many people who I can talk to about what I do who really get it and we’ve been competing day in, day out for almost a decade.  Say what you want about Rachel but she’s smart and she’s…I don’t know… interesting I guess?  Besides, I think I’m like, her only friend.  Anyway, how’s your sister doing? I bet she’s relieved to have the whole thing behind her.” 

“Oh, I’m sure. I just hope she learned something from all this.” sighed Beth.

“Well, I’m glad it worked out” said Cosima.

“Glad what worked out?” said Rachel as she arrived with the drinks.

“We were just talking about her sister’s case” said Cosima lightly.

“Yes, that was a difficult matter, but I think in the end we arrived at the correct result.” Then turning to Cosima, Rachel took a sip of her martini and said with a slight frown, “Of course, I had to explain the whole thing to the brother today.”

 “The brother?” said Beth.

“Mr. Schmidt’s brother, Joseph.  He was terribly upset that I dismissed the charges.  I tried to explain the basis of my decision, but I couldn’t make him understand.”

“You had to” said Cosima, “Or I totally would have kicked your ass.”

“Perhaps.  And I am sorry to have deprived you since it happens so rarely” smiled Rachel, “Of course, in fairness it’s not too often you have clients who are even remotely defensible, now is it Cosima?”

“True” shrugged Cosima.

“Seriously, no offence, but how do you do it?” asked Beth.

“Do what?” said Cosima with one eyebrow raised.

“Defend the ones you ‘know’ are guilty. Doesn’t it bother you sometimes?” said Beth.

“Oh god, here we go…” said Rachel.  

Cosima sat up, rolling her eyes at Rachel and then looked back at Beth, “Seriously, people ask me that all time.  And you’re right, most of my clients probably did at least of some of the things they’re charged with. However, we live a country where the government has to prove certain things before it can punish you.  It’s not enough, no offense, for the police to just file a report saying, “Well, she did it. Lock her up!” You need witnesses and evidence.  It needs to happen in open court and on the record. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where that wasn’t true. Would you?  Anyway, for all that to happen, someone needs to be there to make sure the government proves its case. Does that mean sometimes ‘guilty’ people go free?  For sure, but that’s the trade-off for living in a free society instead of a police state.”

“You see Elizabeth? She’s doing the Lord’s work” said Rachel drily, “Keeping the world safe from tyrants like you and me.”

“That is not at all what I said and you know it” smiled Cosima, “But we all play our part and making the government prove up its cases is mine.  Now, if I’m being honest sometimes I don’t like the outcome either, but I still think it has to be done. ”

 “I take it you’ve heard that speech before?” said Beth.

“You have no idea” smirked Rachel.

***

Beth ended up sitting at the bar with Cosima and Rachel for several hours. They had an entertaining, free-wheeling conversation on a variety of topics, but she especially enjoyed hearing them talk about their cases since their jobs essentially picked up where hers left off.  Cosima was a good story teller and she largely carried the conversation. You could see why juries liked her. Her views were about what Beth would have expected.  While Beth wasn’t exactly sold on the idea that keeping an obviously guilty person out of jail on a technicality was a net good for society, she’d never really sat down with a Public Defender and talked with them about it before and it gave her something to think about—especially given how close Sarah came to spending years in jail for something she didn’t do.  Rachel, on the other hand was a bit of a surprise.  She was wittier than Beth ever would have imagined given their prior interactions. She tended to listen more than she spoke, but when she did have something to say it was usually, as Cosima had said earlier, “interesting” and always rational. Sometimes too rational—like the people whose lives she was discussing weren’t real.  Beth wasn’t exactly sure whether she liked her or not but she had enjoyed the evening.

***

When Beth got home from the bar later that night, her first clue that someone was inside her dark house was the empty Chinese take-out container laying on the kitchen counter.  Paul was out of town so she unclipped the leather strap on her gun holster and took a few tentative steps into her living room, but her mild panic quickly subsided when saw a couple of empty beer bottles on the coffee table and a trail of dark clothing on the floor leading to her bedroom. She could hear the sound of the shower running—it was just Sarah.  It had been three days since Sarah had gotten out of jail. Beth was actually somewhat surprised it took her this long to come for her stuff—and her money.

Beth sighed, made herself another drink even though she knew it was a bad idea, and without turning on the lights, sat down heavily on the couch to wait.  A short time later, Sarah emerged from Beth’s bedroom dressed in something clean from her bag with dripping hair and swigging from a beer she’d apparently taken into the shower with her. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Beth greeted her from the couch.

“Fuck! You scared the living shit out of me! Why are you sitting in the dark like a psycho?” said Sarah.

“I’m in my own goddamned house and you’re a crappy burglar by the way. You’re just lucky I didn’t shoot you!”

“Sorry” smiled Sarah as she sat down, “It’s almost midnight.  I thought you’d be here and you should really think about upgrading the lock.”

“I’ll take that under advisement” said Beth with a glare as she stood up and walked into her bedroom.  When she returned she tossed the money from the shoebox in Sarah’s lap. “Here you go. That’s what you’re here for right?”

“You’re just going to give it to me?”

“I don’t want it.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had Charlotte go get it, but for the record, I didn’t take anything from Vic that didn’t belong to me and I didn’t send Charlotte to a drug den.  Sherry’s just a friend and she’s sort of a disaster, but she’s not like a dealer or anything.”

“No, but apparently you are.”

Sarah screwed up her face, “Er…Not really. It was more like a one-off.”

“If you say so, but look I’m tired and I don’t want to fight with you tonight. So just take it and go.”

“Well, like I said, I’m sorry and I want to thank you. I heard what you did to make the County Attorney dismiss and…” she paused and gestured to the money, “for keeping the rest of it to yourself.  I actually can’t believe you did that.”

“I really can’t believe it either” said Beth rubbing her temples with a slight smile, “And I really am sorry I didn’t come see you while you were in jail. It must have been awful.”

“It really was. Everyone in there was just so pissed off or strung out or crazy and then I got so sick and none of those asshole guards would believe me. I kept thinking it’d be over when the surveillance stuff from Felix’s came through and when it wasn’t…I thought I was gonna lose it.”

 “Yeah, I know. But listen, I know you didn’t ‘do’ this exactly, but you can’t keep living that way or...”

“I know. I know” said Sarah irritably and then she sighed and softened, “Sorry. I know. And I really am going to try and stop being such a fuck up. Siobhan said I could stay with her for a while. Try and get my life sorted and all that.”

“Good” smiled Beth even though she’d heard that one a million times, “And I’ll try not to mother you or judge you it’s just…I need you to be okay, if that makes sense.”

 Sarah smiled, “It does and I’ll try.”

“Good” smiled Beth.

“Alright then, Good talk, Elizabeth but I gotta go.”

“Where?”

“Meeting some friends”

“At midnight?”

“Yeah” shrugged Sarah as she drained her beer. “I’ll see you on Sunday, alright?” 

“I’ll be there.” said Beth with a sigh.


	15. Chapter 15

It was late Sunday afternoon which meant family dinner at Siobhan’s. Felix, who had brought a sack of dirty laundry, was currently sitting on the couch folding his things.  Charlotte was in the kitchen helping Siobhan chop vegetables. Tonight they were having one of Siobhan’s old standbys: lemon herb chicken with roast vegetables.  Beth came limping in a short time later looking even more worn out than usual. When they asked her about it, she matter-of-factly told them she’d tweaked her knee making an arrest that morning. Of course, she left out that she and Art had gotten up at the crack of dawn that morning to serve “no knock” felony warrants with the S.W.A.T. team.  This meant they were basically busting into the homes of people with outstanding felony arrest warrants at odd hours to bring them in which was a dangerous business.  At the last one they did that day, someone had begun firing at them from a second floor window with an assault rifle while the guy they were trying to arrest ran out the back door. Art had been grazed by a bullet on his arm and Beth had twisted her knee diving out of the way as bullets whizzed over her head and ricocheted around her.  She never told them about stuff like that if she could avoid it, and besides as soon as the Vicodin kicked in she wouldn’t feel it anyway. 

As dinner approached once again the only one missing was Sarah, although the reason was almost unprecedented—she was at work.  To their collective surprise she had taken Siobhan up on her offer to get her on at the florist shop and she had been gainfully employed delivering flowers from 1pm to 5pm for an entire week (which they all agreed had to be some kind of record for her).   Siobhan had told her she could stay as long as she liked so long as she had a job, picked up after herself and there were no visits from the police.  In exchange Sarah could come and go as she pleased.  So far Sarah had complied with the letter if not exactly the spirit of the deal.  Each night she had disappeared after dinner, stayed out way too late, then stumbled home and slept ‘til noon the next day, but so far, she’d managed to drag herself to work each day. This morning, Siobhan thought she almost looked too hungover to function but she had made it to work anyway–which when it came to Sarah, she supposed, was what passed for progress.  

When it was almost 6pm, they were all in the kitchen sitting around the table and drinking tea when they heard Sarah arrive back home and flop dramatically onto the living room sofa. 

“How was your shift dear?” called Siobhan from the kitchen while exchanging an amused look with Felix.

“Fucking awful” Sarah moaned from the other room causing Charlotte and Felix to snigger and Beth to roll her eyes.

“Anything in particular or is that just a comment on work in general, luv?” asked Siobhan lightly.

“Both” scowled Sarah, “I mean people are just mental.  I’m standing there with a bouquet of roses and baby’s breath and shit and this lady’s like screaming at me to get off her porch or she’s gonna call the cops.”

“Yeah, well maybe if you weren’t dressed like you were there to case the joint,” replied Felix causing another round of laughter to erupt from the kitchen.

“Oh my god” chuckled Beth, “Sarah, only you could get arrested for delivering flowers” 

 “All of you can piss off” grumbled Sarah as she kicked off her boots, laid back on the couch and closed her eyes.   

Then changing the subject, Beth turned to Charlotte and said, “Hey, I thought you were going to bring your friend Jay, tonight?”

“Are you kidding me? I’m not subjecting him to this for a while or at least until I don’t have to be like, ‘This is my sister, Sarah. She just got out of prison.’”

“You didn’t tell him?” asked Felix.

“No, it’s too embarrassing!” shrugged Charlotte.

“Oi! I can hear you, you know!” said Sarah.

“I meant you too” called Charlotte.

“Everyone just keep antagonizing me. Watch what happens” muttered Sarah from the other room. 

“But I do have something I want to tell you all” said Charlotte with a shy smile.

Siobhan stopped what she was doing, looked over and said “You do, do you?”

“I’ve made a decision. I’m going to quit working at the record shop and go to school full-time next semester.”

“Oh yeah?” said Siobhan, “What brought this about?”

“I’m taking this accounting class this semester and I just love it so I’ve decided to major in accounting.”

“Eww. Seriously?” grimaced Felix, “It’s bad enough having a cop in the family, isn’t it?” 

“You didn’t seem to mind when I got you out of that public urination ticket” muttered Beth.

“Shut up, Felix” laughed Charlotte, “And think about it, when you’re a famous artist, I can do your books for you since you’re crap with numbers.”

“Well that’s true and I guess I’ll always have Sarah if I’m feeling bad about my life choices!” brightened Felix.

“The hell, Fe?” called Sarah from the other room.

 “Oh you know I love you!” smirked Felix as he leaned into the living room and blew her a kiss as Sarah flipped him off.

“Well, I think it’s just wonderful” said Siobhan fondly.

“Thanks. And Beth, you were right, there’s so many scholarships for people like us who used to be in the foster system. I’m even gonna get a stipend for living expenses!”

“How come no one ever told me that?” grumbled Sarah as she walked into the kitchen.

“Planning on getting your GED, are we Sarah?” asked Felix.

“No” said Sarah with a scowl.

“Well then, I guess it’ll be flowers and living at home ‘til you’re 30 for you then” said Felix.

“God help us” sighed Siobhan as she took the lovely roast chicken out of the oven.

A short while later the table was set and Siobhan called them all to dinner.  They ate and talked about all manner of things great and small—the piece Felix had entered into the art contest, Siobhan’s upcoming trip to Ireland, whether Charlotte should stay in her apartment or move to the dorms, the personal best Beth had posted in the half-marathon she’d run the day before, etc.  Sarah was unusually quiet throughout the meal as it dawned on her how little she knew about their day to day lives.

As they were wrapping up, however, she cleared her throat and said, ”Listen. I’m not very good at this kind of thing. But, I want to thank you all. I know I’ve made a right mess of so many things, and I’m gonna try and be better.  But, you all stuck by me and I don’t know how to ever make it up to you and…” then she trailed off too choked up to continue.

“We know and we love you too” smiled Siobhan.

“Yeah?” said Sarah as she wiped her eyes.

 “Always” said Beth with a smile while she reached over and put her hand on Sarah’s and Felix leaned over and pulled her into a hug. Siobhan didn’t know what the future held for Sarah or any of them really, but for the first time in a long while she had them all there and happy and that was enough for tonight.  

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s it folks except for the Epilogue (which should be going up tomorrow). It’s a flashback! Bet you can guess what it’s about. ;) If you’ve managed to read this far, thanks for reading & commenting.


	16. Epilogue

Epilogue:

December 23nd: They had actually stolen the cocaine from some poor schmuck who mistakenly thought the luckiest day of his life had just gotten luckier.  Sarah and Vic had been sitting in a booth at a dive bar downtown drinking beer and trying to ignore one other while they waited for Sid, one of Vic’s sketchier friends, to arrive.  Sid was known to traffic in all manner of stolen goods and Sarah and Vic had done odd jobs for him over the years.  This time he wanted them to dress up like a middle class couple and carefully drive a U-haul loaded with stolen laptops to his contact on the West Coast and they were keen to do it.  Most of their profits of late had gone up Vic’s nose and they were running out of money.  Sarah just wanted out, but first (she told herself) she needed one last big payday. However, the last time they’d done a job for Sid, he’d shorted them claiming his supplier had shorted him first.  Sarah wanted the money up front, but Vic didn’t want to offend his friend. They’d been bickering about it all morning and Sarah, who was hungover anyway, was completely annoyed. The other problem was Vic kept getting up and going to the bathroom and was presently high as a kite.  For all her bad habits, Sarah wasn’t one to mix business with pleasure.

An hour or so later, Sid texted that he’d gotten hung up and could they meet tomorrow.  Sarah gave Vic a “See, I told you so look” and opened her mouth to begin telling him as much, when all of a sudden Vic shushed her.  There had been a guy in the booth behind them for the last hour or so sitting by himself.  A few moments ago he had taken a call on his cellphone and he began telling someone at the other end of the line a little too loudly about the miracle that had fallen into his lap.  He’d been working alone at the scrap yard stripping down junked out cars when he found a kilo of cocaine hidden in the body of one of the cars behind the wheel well.  It was sitting in his apartment right now and he was trying to decide what to do with it.  Sarah raised her eyebrows and Vic gave her a big knowing smile.  Then, without exchanging any words at all, Sarah slid out of the booth and went to do what she did best—within ten minutes she had dropped the accent and was sitting in the booth with the guy (whose name turned out to be Todd) chatting him up.  Four hours later, Todd found himself at another bar across town, drunk as a skunk, totally convinced he was about to get laid and thinking to himself “Could this day get any better?” In reality, Sarah had quickly extracted the guy’s address and the fact that he lived alone.  She’d then lifted his keys and passed them to Vic while Todd was in the bathroom. Vic then dashed to the hardware store down the street to make a copy of the guy’s house key (helpfully identified with one of those rubber house symbols on the end. Thanks, Todd!).  Later, Vic passed the keys back to Sarah who then pretended to find them on the floor under their booth to give them back to their mark.  Sarah then convinced Todd to go to another bar, while Vic went to the guy’s apartment and stole the cocaine. After Vic texted her the thumbs up, she ditched poor Todd while he went for drinks at the bar. His night went downhill from there.  

When Sarah got back to their apartment, she found Vic grinning from ear to ear. The cocaine, which was wrapped in two little bricks, turned out to be pure, uncut and of the highest quality.  Sarah and Vic weren’t real players in the drug scene, but they had dabbled from time to time when opportunity knocked.  They knew just enough to know what they had and what they had was worth a fortune. After it was cut, it would probably have a street value in excess of $100,000.  However, they didn’t know much about cutting it to make it safe to sell, and then there was the problem of moving that much product.   Vic was game to try. Sarah thought the safer play was to quickly flip it to one of the major players in town and cash out even if that meant only getting wholesale ($40 to $50K) rather than retail pricing.  Either way, it would still be more money that either of them had ever seen in their lives. They sat up drinking and debating it well into the night.

December 24th: When Sarah woke up the next day, both Vic and the cocaine were gone. Turns out he’d just gone to the bodega down the street for cigarettes and for whatever reason had decided the cocaine was too valuable to leave his sight, but it pissed her off and she laid into him as soon as he walked through the door. What the hell was he thinking? How dare he take off with their shit without telling her?  What kind of a fucking moron walks around with that shit for no reason?  Things rapidly deteriorated from there. Vic completely lost it and charged at her. He threw her to the ground and was holding her down with his forearm pressed against her windpipe.  When she tried to knee him in the groin, he let up just long enough to smack her so hard that she saw stars.  As her body registered the pain, she desperately grabbed the first thing she felt which turned out to be a glass ashtray and clocked him in the temple as hard as she could.  Miracle of miracles Vic slumped over and went down. Sarah quickly rolled away from him and got to her feet.  She’d knocked him unconscious and he had a slow trickle of blood dripping from his head, but he was definitely breathing.  Sarah ran over, grabbed the bag she’d packed for their faux road trip, then quickly snatched one of the two bundles of cocaine and fled the apartment.  

It took a good hour or so for her to calm down enough to think about what to do.  She decided there was really only one play—sell it fast and get the hell out of town.   She only knew a few people big-time enough to be potential buyers.  The trouble was anyone she knew, Vic knew too.   She quickly found a gas station bathroom and wrapped a couple of samples of the product in small paper packets.  Then she made her way downtown to try and find Sean Duffy, a slightly unsavory but connected guy she and Vic had done jobs for on occasion.  Of all the people she could think of, he was the most likely to have friends who might have the kind of bankroll on hand to quickly buy what she was selling.   Even better, the dude couldn’t stand Vic.  Fortune smiled on her (or so she thought at the time) and she found Sean at the third bar she tried.  After shooting the breeze with him for few minutes, she had passed him a sample and Sean had returned from the bathroom with a big shit-eating grin.  He was definitely interested, but also a bit intrigued.  He’d known Sarah for years, and she was right--he thought Vic was a worthless piece of shit, but he’d never seen her do anything like this without Vic and never on this scale.  Also, she had a fresh bruise on her eye, so something told him Vic was still somehow in the picture.  Nevertheless, he told her if she had as much as she said she had, he’d give her $20K and Sarah quickly agreed. Another red flag popped up in Sean’s mind.  She just needed to meet him tomorrow morning at the Maid Rite diner down by the train station at 6:00am. He told her to flatten it, fold it into a newspaper, leave it on the opposite side of the booth and he’d sit down and swap it for another newspaper concealing the money.  In the meantime, he planned to call on Vic just to make sure this was all above board.

Afterwards Sarah walked around downtown until it began to get dark and the temperature began to drop.  As she walked, it dawned on her for the first time that day that it was Christmas Eve.   Her family was probably all at Siobhan’s having a lovely turkey dinner and a part of her really wanted to be there, but she was exhausted after the last 24 hours and didn’t think she had the energy to pull off a convincing apology to Siobhan and Beth for the whole warrant debacle.  She also didn’t really want to go there carrying the cocaine. Somehow it just felt all wrong.  Instead, she made a snap decision to go wait for Felix at his place.  She’d just say “Merry Christmas” and then go. She really didn’t want to drag him into this, but she hadn’t seen him in over four months and she’d need to leave town tomorrow for a good long while.  That way, she rationalized, he could tell the others he’d seen her and they wouldn’t worry too much.

When she woke up in Felix’s hallway later that night and saw him and Charlotte smiling down at her, she felt happier than she’d been in quite a while.  She ended up staying much longer than she planned. 

December 25th: After Felix passed out, Sarah had set the alarm on her phone for 5:45am and then curled up on the opposite side of the couch from Charlotte and put her ear buds in so the sound of the alarm wouldn’t wake them.  When her alarm went off she quietly gathered her things, smiled at the sleeping forms of Felix and Charlotte and then tip-toed out. When she got to the diner, she did what Sean told her to do and waited. Shortly after 6am he came in and pretended to hit on her.  She quickly caught on and played along. He deftly made the exchange as planned.  Just as he was leaving, however, he dropped character:

“I’m glad you’re done with that asshole.”

“Huh?” 

“It’s too bad he’s not as smart as you.”

And then he walked away. She had no idea what he really meant by that until she woke up in the hospital the next day.  
                 
               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End.


End file.
